Crowds of Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban were filmed as they chased planes down the runway and some even clung to the wheels of a U.S. military plane.
Desperate Afghans try to board flights to escape Taliban
A harrowing video also showed desperate stowaways rushing to their deaths from a plane leaving the capital, Kabul.
The horrific scene unfolded as a large crowd gathered on the airport runway in a desperate attempt to board planes and escape Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
A video appears to show two people falling from the plane shortly after takeoff.
A Kabul news agency reported, “Locals near Kabul airport claim that three young men clinging tightly to the wheels of a plane fell onto people’s houses.
“One of the locals confirmed this and said that the fall of these people produced a loud and frightening noise.”
A later report said that “the video shows a flight from Kabul airport in which two people are thrown from a plane into people’s houses.”
It came amid grisly scenes at Kabul airport, where hundreds of Afghans had gathered on the tarmac in a desperate attempt to board flights to leave the country and escape Taliban rule.
Really? I mean really?
This is happening in real in Afghanistan#Afganistan pic.twitter.com/JQ1MGbJkzQ
— BABA🚬 (@SRKsPursuit) August 16, 2021
A video showed a crowd running in front of a U.S. military plane with several people clinging to its wheels. At least five people were killed during Monday’s chaos, witnesses told Reuters, although authorities have not confirmed how they died.
The Wall Street Journal reported that at least three people were killed by gunfire. A video posted on social media showed three bodies on the ground near what appeared to be a side entrance to the airport.
A U.S. official said earlier that troops had fired into the air to deter people trying to force their way onto a military flight that was meant to take diplomats and U.S. embassy staff out of the fallen city.
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