Chaotic scenes have been reported outside Kabul international airport as governments rush to bring home their citizens as well as Afghan colleagues.
Taliban militants controlling access to the airport have fired shots into the air to disperse approaching crowds.
Some 5,000 people have been evacuated in the last 24 hours, through the airport which is being run by US troops deployed to organise the evacuation.
It comes three days after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“It’s absolutely hectic and chaos out there,” one Western official told the Reuters news agency, as thousands of people remain desperate to leave, including Afghans who helped the US-led mission in the country over the past 20 years.
Taliban fighters deployed around the airport are reportedly not permitting Afghans without documents or passports to enter.
The hardline Islamist group’s dramatic takeover of Kabul on Sunday took many Western governments by surprise.
Staff at the Dutch embassy have faced criticism after saying they did not have time tell Afghan colleagues they were going.
The former president of the Dutch military union feared there was little time left to evacuate interpreters and local staff: “If we don’t succeed in the next 48 to 72 hours it’ll be too late,” Anne-Marie Snels told the BBC.
Source: BBC
