Chaotic scenes unfolded at Kabul’s airport on Monday as thousands of people rushed the tarmac in desperate attempts to flee Afghanistan following a takeover by the Taliban, which swept into the capital in a stunningly swift overthrow of the Western-backed government
Videos posted to social media from Hamid Karzai International Airport showed Afghans clinging to a departing U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane. Others showed people falling from the wheel well of a jet just before takeoff.
Other planes were seen overloaded with Afghans who flooded across the runway to board them.
Scare of the Talibans: Heart wrenching scenes of Afghanistanis falling off US crafts from mid-air in Kabul 😤#DiaryOfAnAfricanBlogger pic.twitter.com/OukL4LfiRX
— Diary of an African Blogger (@EfioItaNyok) August 16, 2021
U.S. troops stationed at the airport fired warning shots as they struggled to manage the evacuations of Americans and Afghans fearful of Taliban rule.
At least seven people died at the airport during the chaos, the Associated Press reported.
The Taliban seized control of Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and Afghanistan’s Western-trained security forces collapsed.
