Russia has become the latest country to start evacuating its citizens from Lebanon after a special flight left the Lebanese capital Beirut yesterday with the family members of diplomats.
As we reported yesterday, Australia is sending two planes to Cyprus to help Australians and their families out of Lebanon.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said 500 seats would be available on the flights on Saturday, in addition to 80 seats on a flight that left Lebanon yesterday. However, she said only 35 of those 50 seats were filled, despite more than 1700 people registering with the Department of Foreign Affairs as wanting to leave.
Wong urged Australians to leave by any means possible. “Now is not the time for you to wait and see,” she said. “Now is the time to leave.”
There could be as many as 15,000 Australians still in Lebanon.
Belgium, Denmark and Italy have all urged their nationals to leave Lebanon as soon as possible, while China, Germany, Cyprus, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the US and the UK have already actioned evacuation plans for nationals resident in Lebanon.
France has not issued an evacuation order, but it has a warship in the region and is also sending a helicopter carrier to the eastern Mediterranean with a view to evacuating its nationals via Cyprus and Turkey.
With Reuters and AP
