ISTANBUL: Governments around the world scrambled on Wednesday to send planes and ships to evacuate their citizens from turmoil in Libya, whose leader Muammar Qadhafi has vowed to crush a revolt against his 41-year rule.
Fears for the safety of foreigners were heightened after a Turkish worker was shot dead as he climbed a construction crane near the capital Tripoli, according to Turkish officials.
Turkey, with 25,000 citizens in oil-producing Libya, is mounting the biggest evacuation operation in its history, and 21 other governments have asked Ankara for help getting their nationals out, said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
European Union states are evacuating some 10,000 EU citizens from Libya, a spokesman for the EU executive said during a European Commission news briefing.
The US State Department said a 600-passenger chartered ferry was due to leave Tripoli for Malta. There are several thousand Americans living in Libya, most with dual citizenship with about 600 carrying only US passports.
Israel said it would allow 300 Palestinians in Libya to enter Palestinian territories in the coming days.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos as some of the estimated 1.5 million foreigners living in Libya tried to escape the violence. Italy said estimates that about 1,000 people had been killed in the uprising were credible.
Adil Yasar, a Turk who arrived in Istanbul late on Tuesday, said fights broke out at the packed Tripoli airport, where he and others had gone without food and water for two days.
A passenger who landed in Madrid on Wednesday on a Libyan Airlines chartered flight said, “The airport has collapsed.”
Another passenger, Carlos Dominguez of Venezuela, said people in the tense capital were waiting for a stronger global reaction: “People are angry with the international attitude.”—Reuters
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