An evacuation plane from Germany that can carry 135 passengers left Afghanistan with just seven people sparking anger and criticism.
German officials have been slammed after the huge jet left the capital Kabul with the low number of Afghans from the huge crowd pleading to get on board.
The rescued people involved five Germans, a citizen from another European country and one Afghan native working for the Bundeswehr - the German army.
The others were not allowed to board because they were not on a list before the plane took off after a mere 30-minutes on the ground.
The German Airbus A400M Atlas, which was the first to land, circled for five hours over the Kabul airport which was temporarily closed due to the chaotic conditions on the tarmac after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Monday.
According to local media NDR, Germany landed their second evacuation plane in Kabul on Tuesday.
Blaming airport chaos after the Taliban takeover, Germany's Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) reported: "We had very little time, so we only took people who were on-site.
"We couldn't rescue more people yesterday as the chaotic situation prevented them from being at the airport."
A spokesperson for the Federal Foreign Office of Germany said that due to the "chaotic circumstances at the airport and regular shootings at the access point, it is not guaranteed that other German nationals in need of evacuation would have access to the airport at all without the protection of the Bundeswehr."
The spokesperson also reported that they were left on their own after the admission of people from the civilian part of the airport was not made possible by the partners exercising security responsibility at the airport."
Kramp-Karrenbauer added: "We have a very confusing, dangerous and complex situation at the airport, especially because of the crowds. We managed to bring the plane to the ground in a really breakneck landing."
But Later that same day, dramatic photographs appeared showing scores of people on board a US military aircraft after they frantically fled Kabul and the clutches of the Taliban - raising further questions as to why the German aircraft was only willing to take a handful of people.
Many public figures criticised the Germany army's inefficiency and described the rescue of only seven people as shameful.
German artist Igor Levit tweeted: "In the face of disaster, not filling the plane with people is incomparably inhuman. It's shameful. Those in charge don't understand what war is. I'm speechless. Seven people. Seven. Because the others were not on the list."
Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) called on the federal government to act quickly on Monday and emphasised that the Bundeswehr must "get out whoever they can get out".
During a press conference on Monday, German Councilor Angela Merkel reported that the Bundeswehr must cooperate with international partners in order to rescue as many people as possible because of "the extremely difficult conditions in Kabul."
On Monday crowds of Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban were filmed chased jets down the runway with some even clinging to the wheels of a US military plane.
Distressing video also showed desperate stowaways plunging to their deaths from a plane as it left Kabul.
Reports say several men clung to the wheels of a US C-17 amid the Taliban surge across the country to take control following the exodus of US and British troops.
A video appears to show two people falling from the aircraft soon after takeoff.
