Appalling images of cities and towns laid to waste by an enormous earthquake in Nepal – leaving thousands dead or injured – have shocked the world.

As many as eight million people have been affected and, as Closer went to press, 10,000 people were feared dead, including 18 climbers hit by an avalanche on Mount Everest triggered by the quake.

MIRACLE AS BOY FOUND ALIVE IN RUBBLE FIVE DAYS AFTER NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

In Nepal’s worst disaster in nearly a century, homes in heavily populated capital Kathmandu were reduced to rubble and hundreds of thousands of people, too terrified to go home because of aftershocks, have been forced to sleep in the streets.

Over 300 Britons – including BGT star Amanda Holden’s sister Deborah – were also caught up in the devastation and 30 are still thought to be missing, with one confirmed fatality.

Among those who had lucky escapes were honeymooning couple Alex Schneider and Sam Chappatte, both 28; heavily pregnant Eleanor Walker-Corriette, 35, from Nottingham, who’d been staying in Nepal with her husband; and 22-year-old Julia Carroll, who’d been white-water rafting with her boyfriend Tom Challis, 23, when the quake struck.

HOLLY HAGAN DEFENDS PROTEIN WORLD ADS: 'PEOPLE SHOULD FOCUS ON NEPAL DISASTER'

Aid worker Cat Carter, 31, from Sussex, has witnessed first-hand the devastating impact the earthquake has had on Nepal – she flew out there after the disaster struck. She says that despite losing everything, people are rallying together to support each other.

Speaking to Closer from Kathmandu, Cat – who’s worked for the **Save The Children's **emergency response team for six years – says: “The extent of the destruction and the huge loss of human life is heartbreaking.

WATCH: HORRIFYING VIDEO CAPTURES MOMENT AVALANCHE HITS EVEREST

“We keep hearing devastating stories about children who’ve lost their families, and parents desperately searching for lost children. People are going through hell. Many of the kids’ faces, covered in dust from the earthquake, are permanently tear-stained because they’ve been crying for days. Hundreds of thousands are still sleeping in the streets, as they’ve lost everything or are too scared to go home.

"It’s impossibly bleak, but incredibly, even among such devastation, there are glimmers of hope. Children who have got lost or whose parents are still missing are being looked after by other families who are sharing what little food or tea they have. Among the rubble, children have started playing football in the street and I heard women laughing for the first time since the quake – a sign of hope for tomorrow.”

**To read more buy Closer magazine, out now. **