Packed to the Rafters star Hugh Sheridan has had contact with his brother, who was missing in Nepal after the deadly earthquake struck on Saturday.

Zachary Sheridan, 20, contacted his family via social media on Tuesday to let them know he was safe and well.

He posted on Facebook just before 3pm (AEST) to say he was safe and “really sorry for everyone affected”.

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“Communication has been down otherwise I would have obviously let you know earlier,” he wrote.

“Thanks gran for looking over me.”

It was believed Zachary, from Adelaide, was at Mount Everest at the time an avalanche hit, triggered by the magnitude-7.8 earthquake in Nepal.

On Monday, Hugh Sheridan travelled to Nepal with his other brother, Tom, in a desperate search for their sibling.

A family member confirmed with 9NEWS on Tuesday that Zachary was found in Gorakshep, Nepal and had been on Gokyo at the time of the earthquake.

The 20-year-old had been studying media and arts in Hong Kong when he decided to embark on the trip on his own.

He had been travelling with a local trekking tour company.

Melbourne mother of two Renu Fotedar, 49, was the first Australian confirmed as having died after the earthquake, in an avalanche at the Mount Everest base camp on Sunday caused by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock, while it’s believed up to 200 remain unaccounted for.

According to her social media profile, Indian-born Ms Fotedar completed an MBA at the University of Wollongong before setting up a business in Melbourne in 2005, and was a “transpersonal counsellor, life coach and international speaker”.

Ms Fotedar’s husband has travelled to Nepal to recover her body. She will be taken to India where her final rites will be held.

Australian families are still trying to trace 200 missing relatives as rescue crews continue to frantically dig through rubble in search of survivors following a powerful earthquake that struck Nepal early on Saturday.

“We will continue to search for any Australians who are unaccounted for,” Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said.

The death toll from the quake rose to above 5000 on Tuesday, with a further 11,000 people known to have been injured.

Worried relatives of the missing continue to inundated social media with pleas for help and information, and have reported loved ones missing on the Red Cross Family Links website, where travellers in the affected region can check in and confirm they are alive.

Thousands flee

Thousands of people are departing Kathmandu or planning to do so, after the earthquake that rocked Nepal on Saturday, devastating the capital.

A family set up a temporary shelter in in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: Getty

Kathmandu residents are leaving in droves to get away from the collapsed, insanitary houses of the city and to check on homes and loved ones in the provinces.

At the same time, the injured and displaced from the rural areas are flocking to the capital, seeking food, shelter and medical aid.

Buses, with people stacked on the roof and hanging from the doors, leave from whatever is left of the bus stations of the Nepalese capital, while queues of people look for a seat in any vehicle which might take them out of the city.

“The main issue is, there is no power in the city, and a shortage of water, and major shops and banks are closed,” Philips Ewert, director of operations for aid organisation World Vision said.

Those who leave “head out to find shelter, to look for their relatives in the villages, and if their houses are still standing.”

But the situation in the villages is unlikely to be much better.

“We have heard, several villages are completely destroyed and unreachable in Gorkha,” about 100km northwest of Kathmandu, he said.

Mr Ewert said aid workers were trying to supply outlying areas with the most urgently required items.

“Rescue workers are trying to reach remote villages, carrying water purification tablets and food and blankets and tents and tarpaulins,” he said.

“But there is a shortage in Kathmandu as well – food, water, tents, tarpaulins and blankets.”

Health and water were likely to be the biggest issues in the coming days, he said.

Nepal’s government on Tuesday declared three days of mourning for the people who died in the 7.8-magnitude quake.

Emergency information

• ICRC missing persons list
• DFAT: 1300 555 135
• DFAT: +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas)
• To contribute to @unicefaustralia ‘s #NepalEarthquake appeal visit unicef.org.au or call 1300 884 233

– with agencies