"We do not yet know the scope of the damage, but this could be one of the deadliest and most devastating earthquakes since the 1934 tremor which devastated Nepal and Bihar," said Jagan Chapagain, Asia/Pacific director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The United States and the European Union were among those to pledge assistance to the government of Nepal, as messages of support poured in from world leaders including China's Xi Jinping, France's Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The IFRC said it was extremely concerned about the fate of rural villages close to the epicentre of the quake, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the capital Kathmandu.
"Roads have been damaged or blocked by landslides and communication lines are down preventing us from reaching local Red Cross branches to get accurate information," said Chapagain in a statement.
"We anticipate that there will be considerable destruction and loss of life."
Other aid organisations responding to the emergency also struggled to assess the needs with communications cut off around the Himalayan nation.
"Communication is currently very difficult. Telephone lines are down and the electricity has been cut off making charging mobile phones difficult," said Cecilia Keizer, Oxfam country director in Nepal.
"People are gathered in their thousands in open spaces and are scared as there have been several aftershocks," she added.
French aid group Action Against Hunger (ACF) said in a statement its teams in Nepal "were on their way to the affected areas to assess the damage and the needs".
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