Relief organisations are facing massive challenges in reaching survivors of yesterday's powerful earthquake in the Himalayas.
The 7.5 magnitude tremor is now known to have killed more than 300 people in Pakistan and northern Afghanistan.
Thousands have spent the night outdoors in near-freezing temperatures, because they fear aftershocks.
Fundraising Director with UNICEF Ruth Craig says the conditions are awful:
Trocaire has committed €400,000 to support those who've been impacted by the earthquake.
The organisation is supporting the planned distribution of shelter, food and other vital supplies.
Trócaire's Pakistan Director John O'Brien, who's in Islamabad, says there's ongoing danger of aftershocks and the government has been warning people about the dangers of them.
"Already we've seen two aftershocks, 4.6,4.7 magnitude, so we don't have information on how that has impacted on local community," he said.
The US Geological Survey put the epicentre south of Feyzabad in northern Afghanistan - but witnesses said the impact was felt as far away as New Delhi, Islamabad and Lahore.
Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said in a tweet that the earthquake was "the strongest one felt in recent decades".
In the Afghan city of Taloqan, 12 schoolgirls were reportedly killed in a stampede while trying to escape from shaking buildings.
Jim Clerkin, Chief Executive of Oxfam Ireland, says the worst affected areas are remote and mountainous:
At least 78 people have died in Afghanistan and 258 in Pakistan, according to officials in each country.
Pakistan military spokesman General Asim Bajwa said nearly 1,000 were injured.
The remote location of the epicentre, part of the Hindu Kush near the Tajikistan and Pakistan borders, could be a blessing - though it also means the exact number of casualties may take days to emerge as communications are poor.
Journalist Gul Hammad Farooqi, from the northern Pakistani area of Chitral, said his house had collapsed.
"I was thrown from one side of the road to the other by the strength of the earthquake," he said. " I've never experienced anything like it.
"There is a great deal of destruction here, and my house has collapsed, but thankfully my children and I escaped."
The Times of India reported that strong tremors were felt across New Delhi and the national capital region at about 2.45pm local time (9.15am Irish time).
Residents in Kashmir, where electricity and phone lines are apparently down, told ANI news that it was "terrifying".
Sky's India Producer Neville Lazarus said: "We rushed out of our building and went down for some time. As soon as we did we saw the whole street full of people.
"It was quite a scary sort of a moment because of what happened six months ago in Nepal.
"In 2005, Pakistan experienced something almost on the same parallel as this one. An estimate is that 60,000 people died in that earthquake."
