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Reuters
Reuters
Politics

No flights leaving Kabul as desperate people crowd tarmac, Germany says

A man pulls a girl to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 16, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

No evacuation flights are leaving Kabul airport at the moment because desperate people trying to flee the country are blocking the tarmac, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday.

"I understand there is no air traffic at the moment because a large number of desperate people are crowding the tarmac," the spokesperson told journalists in Berlin.

Forty staff from the German embassy were flown out to Doha overnight, he said, adding a small team of less than ten staff would remain at Kabul airport to coordinate evacuations.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Caroline Copley)

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