Forty Britons airlifted from Lebanon as Royal Navy flotilla assembles for 'largest evacuation since Dunkirk'

Forty Britons have been airlifted out of the Lebanese capital Beirut to Cyprus, the Foreign Office said, using helicopters which were used to ferry diplomats and crisis negotiators in. A defence ministry spokeswoman said 3,500 to 4,000 British families comprising 12,000 people and a further 10,000 dual nationals were registered in Lebanon. Many have family ties to the region and it is not known how many wish to leave.

The biggest British evacuation 'since Dunkirk' was being organised on Monday with a flotilla of Royal Navy ships assembling near the war zone to rescue more than 20,000 people from the country's beaches. High priority cases, including a heavily-pregnant woman, have already been airlifted to Cyprus by RAF helicopter.

Two Navy destroyers, York and Gloucester, arrived off Lebanon yesterday and four other warships are expected by Thursday. They will use their helicopters and landing craft to take thousands of Britons off the beaches, once Royal Marine commandos establish a secure landing zone.

Diplomats and defence chiefs are in direct contact with the Israelis to ensure a safe passage. But there was growing anger among the Britons under siege last night that the Foreign Office was still telling them to "keep your heads down and wait" while other countries have already whisked their nationals to safety. One French chartered ferry has already departed for Larnaca carrying its nationals and Canada has also chartered ferries in the region.

One Londoner Ryma Clottey, 41, who was visiting her sister, suffered an asthma attack in panic when the air strikes began and is now in a Beirut hospital. She said: "I am really, really scared. I have to get out of this place, but I don't know how. I can't take it. I have been trying to call the British embassy but I can't get through."

Shona Jolly, 31, a human rights lawyer from London who was on holiday, complained: "It is almost impossible to get sensible advice from the Foreign Office. We go to sleep hearing Israeli jets overhead, there is bombing and smoke all around. We have friends here without power and water. Food is beginning to run out. The situation is very grave."

Eddie Owen, 57, a director of a packaging firm in Coventry, said: "First we were told there is no evacuation plan, then there is an evacuation plan but it is not being activated, and now they have gone back to saying there is no plan. It's more and more scary."

Holidaymaker Grant Wilkinson, 52, a civil servant from Lightwater, Surrey, added: "Nobody from the embassy has been to see us, so we are pretty much in the dark."

Foreign Office minister Kim Howells admitted there are 12,000 Britons and 10,000 people with dual nationality in the country and said Britain also has responsibility for some Commonwealth citizens: "If these numbers have to be evacuated, it becomes the biggest evacuation since Dunkirk" -- although the operations are hardly comparable: during the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940, the Navy and a fleet of 'little ships' rescued 240,000 British troops from French beaches under heavy German fire.

Last night, the Britons airlifted out were exhausted but relieved in the safe haven of RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus. The evacuated were judged to be the most vulnerable cases and their number included a seven-month pregnant mother of two, a kidney transplant patient and a nine-month-old child. Four were treated at the Princess Mary Hospital, where former Lebanon hostages Terry Waite and the late Jackie Mann were taken on their release in 1991.

Of the escape options for those left behind, British officials say the road to Syria is too dangerous because it has been targeted by Israeli warplanes.

Britain's ambassador James Watt has advised UK nationals to "stay put and keep safe" until a larger evacuation is possible. Britain is also assisting its EU allies by making available facilities at Akrotiri, the biggest RAF base in the world outside the UK. If large numbers are evacuated to Cyprus, the aim will be to get them chartered flights home. Most hotels and scheduled flights are fully booked and the island would be hard-pressed to deal with such a large international exodus.

For Britain, the warships York and Gloucester were already in the region when the crisis erupted. The aircraft carrier Illustrious is sailing from Gibraltar, the assault ship Bulwark is on her way from Barcelona and the frigate St Albans and auxiliary supply ship Fort Victoria are being moved to the Mediterranean from the Gulf.

About 400 Italian evacuees have already arrived on Cyprus. The U.S. has chartered a ship with a capacity of 750, which is due to start ferrying evacuees there today. France, with 20,000 citizens in Lebanon, sent a 1,000-passenger ferry from Cyprus which reached Beirut yesterday. Other countries have been helping their nationals escape by road to Syria, despite the British decision that it is too dangerous. Some 700 Danes, 1,300 Swedes, 450 Germans, 100 Nigerians and five coachloads of Norwegians - whose vehicles were marked with huge flags - have reached safety via that route.

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