Hundreds of people were feared killed in Nepal Saturday after a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake ripped through large parts of the country

Hundreds of people were feared killed in Nepal Saturday after a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake ripped through large parts of the country, toppling office blocks and towers in the panic-stricken capital Kathmandu.

Officials said that at least 114 people are known to have died in Nepal but that the toll could be many times higher, while casualties were also reported in neighboring India and Bangladesh.

There were also reports of an avalanche at Mount Everest's base camp in Nepal where scores of mountaineers have gathered at the start of the annual climbing season.

"In Kathmandu 71 have been reported dead so far," home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP as the scale of the disaster began to emerge.

Another 43 had been reported dead in the nearby Bhaktapur district, he added.

At least a dozen bodies were taken away from the ruins of Kathmandu's landmark Dharahara tower, according to an AFP photographer who saw similar scenes of multiple casualties in other parts of the city.

While contact with Nepal was sporadic, a senior Nepalese diplomat warned that the final toll could run into many hundreds.

"We have received reports that there is a big loss of property and life in Nepal," Krishna Prasad Dhakal, the deputy chief of mission at Nepal's Embassy in New Delhi, told AFP.

"Possibly hundreds of people have died in various parts of the country, particularly in Kathmandu and Pokhara."