NEWS DESK
At least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital, according to media reports.
U.S. troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a U.S. official said.
No Officials comment on the deaths.
Gunfire can be heard going off at the Kabul International Airport in a new video that shows people running toward the terminal. Another video shows people scrambling onto planes to escape Afghanistan as the Taliban take over.
Scenes of panic and chaos were witnessed at the Kabul airport Sunday night and Monday, as a sea of people rushed towards the Hamid Karzai International Airport in a bid to catch flights out of the country after the Taliban takeover.
After entering Kabul Sunday afternoon, the Taliban announced a general pardon and urged citizens not to leave the country out of fear and panic.
However, several video clips went viral on social media in which thousands of Afghans can be seen running frantically towards the Kabul airport, in hopes to secure a flight out of the country.
Award-winning journalist Ahmer Khan shared a video clip of the “sheer helplessness” at the Kabul airport.
The Taliban are in control of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded the insurgents have won the 20-year war.
Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan’s presidential palace, hours after the insurgents entered the Afghan capital Kabul yesterday. Both President Ashraf Ghani and Vice-President Amarullah Saleh have left Afghanistan for Tajikistan.
US Embassy said the Kabul airport, where diplomats, officials, and other Afghans have fled, have come under fire.
Hundreds of Afghans, some of them government ministers and government employees and also other civilians including many women and children, crowded in the terminal desperately waiting for flights out.
American diplomats were evacuated from their embassy by helicopter to the airport.