Over 100,000 people still need urgent evacuation from Ukraine's besieged Mariupol, says mayor

FILE PHOTO: A local resident stands near an apartment building damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 4, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo

More than 100,000 people still need to be evacuated urgently from Mariupol, Mayor Vadym Boichenko said on Thursday, describing the situation in the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port city as a humanitarian catastrophe.

"The remaining more than 100,000 people are praying for rescue - a full-scale evacuation is needed," he said on national television.

A woman pulls a cart with bottles of water past the building of a theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

A man carries bottles of water as he walks past the building of a theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

A view shows the building of a theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

A view shows the stairs at the theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko