Britons flown out of Beirut

Forty Britons have been airlifted out of the war- torn Lebanese capital, Beirut, the Foreign Office has reported. They are the first of as many as 10,000 UK citizens in the country who may leave. 

The evacuations followed the news that Royal Navy warships had now arrived in the region and two more warships, HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark, pictured above, were on the way. 

The evacuees, mostly children and the ill, were put on helicopters which took the Foreign Office's rapid deployment team and a military team planning the main evacuation into the capital on Sunday.  

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We made use of the helicopters bringing in the rapid deployment team.  "Rather than send them back empty we filled them with 40 people, mostly made up of children, families with young children and people with long-term illness."  

The FCO spokesman said the helicopters could only take a small number because of the limited fuel supply. They were flown from Beirut back to the departure point in Cyprus. He said a large scale evacuation plan was being devised to help all those Britons still in Lebanon.  He added: "It is not feasible to fly the helicopters back and forth between Cyprus and Beirut."