An Afghan teenager who played for the national youth football team fell to his death after trying to cling to a US plane airlifting people out of Kabul.
Since the Taliban seized the Afghan capital on Sunday, crowds have gathered at the city’s airport in the hope of escaping the country. Amid chaotic scenes at the weekend, hundreds of people were filmed running alongside a US Air Force plane as it gathered speed on the runway, and several men clung on to the side.
Harrowing video posted on social media appeared to show two people falling to their deaths from a C-17 aircraft after it took off.
The Afghan news agency Ariana said on Thursday that one of those who died in the mayhem was Zaki Anwari, a 19-year-old footballer, who fell from a USAF Boeing C-17 on Monday.
The General Directorate of Physical Education & Sports of Afghanistan confirmed Zaki Anwari, a player from the national youth football team, was among hundreds of young people who tried to leave the country by clinging to a US military plane. Anwari fell and died.#ArianaNews pic.twitter.com/onhcSMFiEu
— Ariana News (@ArianaNews_) August 19, 2021
It is believed Anwari attempted to hold on to the outside of the American military aircraft as it departed from Hamid Karzai international airport.
One C-17 Globemaster leaving Kabul carried an estimated 640 people, more than five times its suggested payload, after hundreds flooded on to the plane.
The US Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) said it was reviewing all available information regarding a C-17 aircraft, as well as the loss of civilian lives.
“In addition to online videos and press reports of people falling from the aircraft on departure, human remains were discovered in the wheel well of the C-17 after it landed at al-Udeid air base, Qatar,” it said.
It is believed that at least five people died in the chaos on the ground in Kabul, during which US troops fired into the air to deter people from making their way on to flights evacuating officials.
On Thursday Kabul airport was still chaotic, and dozens of people eligible for evacuation were unable to reach their rescue aircraft. The Taliban maintained a strong presence at airports and some people were seen trying to pass their babies to US soldiers in the hope they might escape the country.
Fears for the safety of those who worked for US and Nato forces appeared to be confirmed by a leaked UN report prepared by the Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses, which said the Taliban were “arresting and/or threatening to kill or arrest family members of target individuals unless they surrender themselves”.
