The UK’s ambassador to Afghanistan has put his evacuation plans on hold to help dozens of Afghans scrambling to leave the country after the Taliban’s takeover.
British troops are racing against the clock to get remaining nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan following the dramatic fall of the country’s Western-backed government.
Around 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the city and in need of evacuation.
On Sunday, the first flight carrying British nationals as part of an operation to evacuate people arrived carrying embassy staff, but ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow was not on board. Instead he remains in the capital, Kabul, working to provide assistance to British nationals and to the UK’s Afghan staff.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) told MailOnline: “We have reduced our diplomatic presence in response to the situation on the ground.
“However our Ambassador remains in Kabul and UK Government staff continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff.
“We are doing all we can to enable remaining British nationals, who want to leave Afghanistan, to do so.”
British forces were first deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the US and played a major role in combat operations until 2014.
A total of 457 British soldiers were killed in the country.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace, said earlier on Monday that they have risked their lives for the last 20 years and “at the very least our obligation has to be to get as many people as possible through the pipeline.
“It’s a really deep part of regret for me ... look, some people won’t get back. Some people won’t get back and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people,” he added.
