Two Turkish ships whisked 3,000 citizens away from the chaos engulfing the North African nation and hundreds of Americans in Tripoli boarded a US -chartered ferry to escape to the Mediterranean island of Malta.
Several countries — including Russia, Germany and Ukraine — sent more planes in to help their citizens escape an increasingly unstable situation.
“The airport was mobbed, you wouldn’t believe the number of people,” said Kathleen Burnett, of Baltimore, Ohio, as she stepped off a flight from Tripoli to Vienna. “It was total chaos.” Irina Kuneva of Bulgaria said tensions in Tripoli were rising sharply after Muammar Qaddafi’s defiant speech on Tuesday.
“He said that people should either do what he is telling them, or there will be a civil war. People are very scared because there are many released prisoners walking drunk on the streets shouting at people and threatening them,” she told reporters upon arriving Wednesday in Sophia.
Unease over the safety of US citizens intensified after failed attempts earlier this week to get people out. But on Wednesday afternoon, US citizens were climbing aboard a 600-passenger ferry at Tripoli’s As-shahab port for the five-hour journey to Malta. Turkey was cranking up the largest evacuation in its history, seeking to protect some 25,000 citizens and more than 200 Turkish companies involved in construction projects in Libya worth more than $15 billion. Some of the construction sites have come under attack by protesters.
Two Turkish commercial ships left the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi on Wednesday escorted by a navy frigate, heading for Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Marmaris.
Authorities set up a soup kitchen and a field hospital at Marmaris and arranged buses to transfer the evacuees. Turkey also sent two more commercial ships to Libya.
Turkey has now evacuated some 5,350 citizens from Libya over the last three days, about 2,250 of them by plane, after two more planes brought around 250 Turkish citizens back home Wednesday.
“We are carrying out the largest evacuation operation in our history,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. “So far, a total of 21 countries have asked Turkey to evacuate their citizens as well.” Davutoglu stressed that Turkey was not leaving Libya and would send “food and medicine to Libyan brothers by ships.” Libya is one of the world’s biggest oil producers — producing nearly 2 percent of the world’s oil — and many oil companies were evacuating their expatriate workers and families.
China was also gearing up for a massive evacuation. There are reportedly 30,000 or more Chinese workers in Libya building railways and other infrastructure and providing oilfield services. Greece was planning to help evacuate around 13,000 Chinese workers to Crete by ship.
China’s first chartered evacuation flight, staffed with relief officials and stocked with food and medicine, left for Libya on Wednesday.
Chinese media reports said a site run by China’s Huafeng Construction Co., Ltd. in eastern Libya was attacked by armed looters over the weekend who stole computers and other equipment and forced nearly 1,000 Chinese workers out of their dorms.
Migrants were also pouring across Libya’s land borders with Egypt and Tunisia on Wednesday. Vans piled high with luggage and furniture lined up at the Salloum border crossing with Egypt. Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the UN migration agency, said thousands of migrants were fleeing Libya and her group was trying to find accommodation for some of those at the border.
Libyan leader Qaddafi has urged his supporters to strike back against the Libyan protesters, escalating a crackdown that has led to widespread shooting in the streets. Nearly 300 people have been killed in the nationwide wave of anti-government protests — and possibly many more.
Two Bulgarian planes returned Wednesday from Tripoli with nearly 200 passengers, some of whom said they heard gunshots.
“I saw horror,” a nurse who gave only her first name, Polly, told reporters. “We decided to return because the situation is unstable.
When we left Tripoli there was some kind of euphoria, everybody was celebrating some kind of victory,” engineer Natalia Vakova said. “But that’s Libya — absolutely unpredictable.” The first planeload of evacuated Russians landed in Moscow, bringing 118 people. Three more planes were expected later Wednesday. A ship was also setting sail for Ras Lanuf, the site of Libya’s largest refinery and port, to evacuate up to 1,000 Russians, Turks, Serbs and Montenegrins there.
Two French military planes evacuated 335 French people and 56 foreigners to Paris from Libya, and a third plane was en route from France. A Dutch Air Force plane left Tripoli late Tuesday with 83 people.
Britain sent a warship, the HMS Cumberland, to anchor off the Libyan coast for a possible sea-borne evacuation of British citizens.
Hundreds of Italians took Alitalia flights from Tripoli home, and an Italian Air Force plane landed in Libya on Wednesday to evacuate others.
Two Italian naval vessels headed to eastern Libyan ports to rescue citizens from Benghazi and other cities where airports are damaged. Italian citizens in the coastal Libyan city of Misurata said their company was arranging evacuation by sea because the airfield there had been damaged.
About 450 Romanians were in the process of being evacuated but some lived far away from Tripoli and it was not clear how they would get to the Libyan capital. Germany was also trying to evacuate about 150 Germans.
