Hundreds of onlookers cheered as rescuers toiling amid the rubble left by Nepal’s earthquake pulled a boy to safety yesterday after he had been trapped for five days, a rare moment of joy for a country struggling to cope with the disaster.

Officials said the chances of finding more survivors were fading as the death toll reached 5,858. But Nepal’s Armed Police Force managed to save 15-year-old Pema Lama from the collapsed ruins of Kathmandu’s Hilton Hotel.

“I saw the police drilling for four hours to remove mounds of debris before they could pull him out,” said Ambar Giri, a medical worker who was at the scene.

Away from the capital, aid was finally reaching some of Nepal’s far-flung towns and villages nestled among mountains and foothills, where the extent of the damage and loss of life has yet to be properly assessed.

From an army helicopter flying from Chautara, northeast of Kathmandu, towards the Tibet border, a Reuters witness estimated 70 to 80 per cent of buildings had been severely damaged.

In a remote village, an army medical team treated injured locals and soldiers supervised the unloading of goods on a muddy expanse of ground next to a school that served as a helipad.

In Chautara itself, a few people cleared away ruined masonry from the upper floors of their houses and mixed cement by the roadside, as the long rebuilding process began.

Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since Saturday’s quake. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged. It said eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

An official from Nepal’s Home Ministry said the number of confirmed deaths from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake had risen to 5,858 by yesterday afternoon, and almost 13,800 were injured. Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared up in some areas, with Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute international aid that flooded into the country.

It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in areas hard to access given the quake damage and poor weather. Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also surfaced. In Langtang valley, where 150 people are feared trapped, a helicopter pilot was taken hostage by locals demanding to be evacuated first, one report said.

In Ashrang village in Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts about four hours by road west of Kathmandu, hundreds of Nepali villagers were living outdoors with little food and water despite boxes of biscuits, juices and sacks of rice and wheat being stored in a nearby government office.