The evacuation of diplomats, other foreigners and Afghans who worked with them was being organised on Monday in a state of emergency, amid scenes of panic following Kabul's fall to the Taliban. At Kabul airport runways were overrun with people clamouring to escape the country, so much so that civilian and military flights had to be suspended. Thousands of Afghans, never having worked for foreigners and having no chance of obtaining a visa for Western countries, rushed to the airport in a climate of total chaos.

While commercial flights were cancelled, Turkey sent a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777 to repatriate its nationals. The plane, with 324 people on board, landed in Istanbul in the afternoon. According to the Flightradar24 website, it was the only civilian plane to take off from Kabul on Monday. From Madrid to The Hague, via Paris, Bucharest, London... everywhere, European governments were flat out organising rescue efforts, although plans threatened to be scuppered by the closure of Kabul airport later in the day.

Belgium decided to send a military aircraft to try to repatriate around 100 people, Belgian nationals and holders of humanitarian visas. A military plane was "currently en route to evacuate interpreters, local embassy staff and families first from Kabul" and several flights are planned, Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said on Monday. Germany, for its part, wants to deploy soldiers in Afghanistan to evacuate its last nationals and threatened Afghans, according to German parliamentary sources. Berlin has identified 2,500 people who could be evacuated, mostly Afghans and their families who worked with the German military.

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