At least 5 dead at Kabul airport, where there is chaos, scenes of panic and shots in the air for escaping the Taliban

At least five people have died at Kabul airport, while thousands of people invade the terminal runway and try to force their way onto the planes taking off from the capital of Afghanistan.

The information cites a witness who claims to have seen the five bodies and another who claims that it is not clear whether the deaths were caused by firearms or due to a stampede.

Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan unleashed chaos this Monday in the Kabul airport, trying to board repatriation flights on the first day of the country under the control of the Taliban.

The tide of people began to arrive from last night to Hamid Karzai International Airport, in the Afghan capital, with many of them without even travel documents or visas, leaving haunting images, after the Taliban entered the city culminating their final victory after two decades of war.

Most are ordinary people who rushed to the airport on the idea that the United States, which is evacuating its personnel in the country, is going to evacuate the Afghans, an airport official told Efe, who requested anonymity.

At the moment neither the Afghan security forces nor the taliban fighters have taken over the security of the airport, he assured.

The mob has left dozens of people beaten, including children, who throw themselves over each other to get to the track, where some planes remain scheduled for a limited evacuation of foreigners, he detailed.

At this time, all flights from Hamid Karzai International Airport are temporarily suspended, the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

“Do not approach the airport until the flights resume”, he added.

Afghans crowd the airport as they wait to leave Kabul on August 16, 2021.

Videos broadcast on social media show hundreds of people pushing and climbing over others to get on a plane, and in others shots are even heard nearby.

In the screenshot of a video, collected by the local channel Tolo on Twitter, three bodies are seen on the ground, and the message that they are “allegedly shot at Kabul International Airport this morning”, without further confirmation, although it is also speculated that they could die in a stampede.

Early this morning local time, the US State Department announced that it had “completed” the process to transport the approximately 4,000 employees of its embassy in Kabul to the airport.

Likewise, the US embassy today reiterated its alert for people waiting to be repatriated, so that they do not approach the airport due to the fragile security of the area, and that they remain sheltered in their places until they are notified.

The State Department said in a statement that it is working to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport and allow the safe exit of US personnel and their allies through civilian and military flights.

“During the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to almost 6,000 soldiers, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and assuming control of air traffic.” It reported.