'Terrified' Afghans have been crushed to death in devastating and chaotic scenes at Kabul airport amid a huge "emergency".
The US has advised Americans in Afghanistan to avoid travelling to Kabul airport on Saturday because of potential 'security threats outside the gates' as thousands gathered trying to flee the country almost a week after the Islamist militants took control.
Sky' New s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsey, reporting from the scene, witnessed the chaos this morning as thousands of people tried to get inside to be evacuated.
He described seeing men, women and "lots of children" at waiting, as soldiers sprayed crowds with a hose to cool them down.
The report said it turned into an emergency within minutes with soldiers trying to save lives while people at the front of the queue were being crushed to death.
Medics were rushing from one "crushed, dehydrated, terrified" casualty to another while Brit paratroopers worked to pull people from the mayhem.
Bodies were covered with white sheets, the report added.
Independent journalist Kim Sengupta also tweeted from Kabul this morning saying it was "a grim and very sad morning at the airport, saw four people, all women, die from heat and crush, absolutely heartbreaking."
He said the four deaths were outside the British camp and said that soldiers did all they could to try and save the victims.
The US advisory came after Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar arrived in Kabul for talks with other leaders to hammer out a new Afghan government after the Taliban's lightning advance across the country.
Images circulated on social media this week of Afghans rushing towards a US C-17 transport plane and clinging to its side.
A separate video showed what appeared to be two people falling from a military plane as it flew out of Kabul.
Since then, crowds have grown at the airport where armed Taliban have urged those without travel documents to go home.
At least 12 people have been killed in and around the single runway airfield since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.
"Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so," the US Embassy advisory said.
Switzerland postponed a charter flight from Kabul because of the chaos.
"The security situation around Kabul airport has worsened significantly in the last hours.
"A large number of people in front of the airport and sometimes violent confrontations are hindering access to the airport," the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Taliban official said the group planned to ready a new model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks, with
separate teams to tackle internal security and financial issues.
"Experts from the former government will be brought in for crisis management," he told Reuters.
The new government structure would not be a democracy by Western definitions, but "it will protect everyone's rights", the official added.
