U.S. and Turkey offer to fly citizens out of Egypt

none@none.com (Muhammad Iqbal) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 11:56:05 +0500

CAIRO: The United States and Turkey said on Sunday they were offering to evacuate citizens wanting to leave Egypt, which has been rocked by violent protests against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Other governments advised their citizens to leave the country or to avoid travelling there if possible, although the Russian tourist agency said 40,000 Russians at Red Sea resorts had no intention of cutting short their holidays. "The U.S. embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safe haven locations in Europe," the U.S. statement said. "Flights to evacuation points will begin departing Egypt on Monday, Jan. 31," it said, describing the evacuation as voluntary. Turkey is sending three Turkish Airlines planes to Egypt on Sunday, one to Cairo and two to Alexandria, to evacuate its 750 citizens, the state-run Anatolian news agency quoted embassy officials in Cairo as saying. Britain hardened its advice to Britons in Egypt, advising nationals to leave Cairo, Suez and Alexandria "where it is safe to do so". It said there were no plans to evacuate British diplomatic staff. European tour operators and airlines have cancelled trips to Cairo since protesters took to the streets, dealing a blow to a tourism industry which provides about one in eight jobs in the country. Witnesses said businesses were starting to evacuate their staff and reported scenes of chaos at the airport, where many people, including Egyptians, were trying to get flights out of the country. VIOLENCE AT NIGHT In the residential area of Cairo, two big buses were parked outside the offices of the Italian oil firm to evacuate families, witnesses said. One foreign employee of the company said his wife and three children would go but he would stay. There was no immediate comment "It's not an issue during the day, it's at night when we don't know what will happen," the employee said. Near the buses was a four-wheel-drive vehicle with security men. Several foreign families were waiting to board the buses. In Baku, an Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman said an accountant at the Azeri embassy in Egypt was killed in street clashes in Cairo late on Saturday on his way home from work. The spokesman said the government was sending a plane to Cairo on Sunday to pick up the body and evacuate about 70 Azeris studying in Egypt. China issued a warning to its citizens in Egypt, urging Chinese travellers to reconsider their plans or seek assistance from the Chinese embassy. In Brussels, the Foreign Ministry said it was advising Belgians not to travel to Egypt but did not believe it was necessary to evacuate its citizens. It said about 750 Belgians lived in Egypt. Most of the estimated 40,000 Russians holidaying in Egypt, mostly in resorts around Khurgada and Sharm-El-Sheik, have no plans to cut short their trips despite the unrest, the acting head of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, Alexander Radkov, told Interfax news agency on Saturday. "On the whole, the situation in Egyptian resorts remains calm. Tourists are resting normally. We have no worries about them so far People do not want to interrupt their holiday," he said. "All flights from Khurgada and Sharm-El-Sheikh are leaving according to schedule," Radkov added. The agency sent a team to Egypt on Saturday to check the situation on the ground. (Additional reporting by buros; writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Tim Pearce)

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U.S. and Turkey offer to fly citizens out of Egypt