Anarchy descended on Tripoli airport as thousands of foreigners packed into the terminal to try to escape the widening crisis, with those who managed to leave describing how food and water were running low.

Nearly 20,000 people have also fled Libya by road to Tunisia over the past four days amid the bloodshed sparked by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's attempts to cling to power.

"Libya is descending into hell," said Helena Sheehan, who made it to London Gatwick Airport on the first specially-chartered British rescue flight.

"The airport is like nothing I've ever seen in my whole life," the 66-year-old said. "It's absolute chaos. There's just thousands and thousands of people trying to get out."

Other foreigners told of gunmen standing on roundabouts and getting on buses looking for mercenaries.

Italy, the nearest major European country and Libya's biggest trading partner, warned of a looming "catastrophic humanitarian crisis" as up to 1.5 million migrants flee north Africa.

The logistical challenges were especially acute for Asian countries with more than 150,000 low-paid workers trapped -- including some 60,000 Bangladeshis and 30,000 Filipinos.

China ramped up a massive air, sea and land operation to evacuate more than 30,000 of its citizens, with over 4,000 transferred to the nearby Greek island of Crete on Thursday.

Evacuee Jill Wang, 24, a translator working for a construction firm near Benghazi, said: "We did not go outside the compound, but others who did were robbed by gangs and some got injured. We were really scared and afraid that something worse would happen."

Greek evacuee Costas Koumentakos, from Athens, said: "We had local friends, they saved us. We were afraid because someone could kill you without answering to no one. There is no police, it's anarchy."

Thailand, which has more than 23,000 workers in Libya, said it was making preparations to get its citizens to Malta. India said a passenger ship had arrived to begin evacuating some of its 18,000 nationals to Egypt.

Migrante International, a support group for Philippines workers abroad, said Filipinos had been left to fend for themselves, as Vice President Jejomar Binay planned to fly to the region to review emergency plans.

Egyptians fleeing from Libya described how they had been beaten and tortured after Kadhafi's son accused Egyptians of being behind the uprising.

An evacuee described how Libyan authorities tried to recruit them to help crush the uprising against Kadhafi's 41-year authoritarian regime.

"When we refused, we were beaten up, tortured," said Ashraf Said, from Cairo.

Hundreds of US nationals and other foreigners have boarded a US-chartered ferry in Tripoli but high seas delayed their departure for Malta.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "incredibly sorry" for the delays in getting British nationals home, as the first three planes made it out, carrying adults, children and even a dog.

A British naval frigate carrying around 200 people left Libya's second city of Benghazi. The government said it was looking at all options to rescue people stuck inland in desert camps, refusing to rule out military means.

Germany, which had approximately 160 nationals left in Libya, has sent three warships. Greece sent three troop transport planes to help rescue its 600 nationals in the country.

Turkey evacuated upwards of 6,000 of its 25,000 nationals over three days by air, sea and land.

More than 300 Russian railroad and oil workers and their families returned to Moscow aboard three planes.

"They burned down a police station next to our house. There is a lot of gunfire at night -- rounds of machine-gun fire. We spent sleepless nights," one woman told Russian state television on arrival.

Canada meanwhile had to look for a new plan after a private insurance company cancelled a charter flight secured by Ottawa.

On land, Tunisian security official Colonel Malek Mihoub told AFP that since February 20 nearly 20,000 people had crossed the border at the Ras Jedir post, mainly Tunisians, Egyptians, Chinese and Libyans.

"Some 5,000 people crossed the border Thursday until 1700 GMT," most of them Chinese but also including around 1,000 Egyptians, about 1,000 Tunisians, Moroccans and 200 Libyans, he added.

A convoy of Austrians also reached the Tunisian border, Vienna said.

earlier related report
British PM sorry as frigate, planes begin Libya exodus
London Gatwick Airport (AFP) Feb 24, 2011 - Britain's first rescue flights left Libya and a warship started loading stranded nationals Thursday as Prime Minister David Cameron apologised for the delay in getting them home.

Three flights -- a commercial charter plane, another airliner chartered by the Foreign Office, and a military Hercules transporter -- left Tripoli airport carrying more than 250 people in total, the Foreign Office said.

The Royal Navy's HMS Cumberland frigate also docked in Libya's second city of Benghazi and loaded up more than 100 British nationals to ferry them to the Maltese capital Valetta.

The British government has faced criticism at home for the handling of its response to the unrest, with delays to the flights and a number of oil workers still stranded in Libyan desert camps.

Cameron, who left the Omani capital Muscat after wrapping up a Gulf states tour, said there was "nothing more important than getting these people home".

"I'm extremely sorry because we want to do everything we can to help them leave. It's a very difficult picture in Libya. This is not an easy situation," Cameron told Sky News television.

He added on the BBC: "We'll do everything we can to get those people home and then to learn the lessons if there are better and different ways of doing this."

The first charter plane made it to London Gatwick Airport with 78 adults and one child on board, while the second touched down in Malta en route to Gatwick carrying 130 adults and two children.

The first flight was chartered by BP, but by the time it reached Tripoli the oil giant had already evacuated its expatriate staff. BP offered the seats to the Foreign Office, who took a rapid deployment team on the outbound flight.

A military C130 Hercules transport plane also left Tripoli on Thursday carrying 51 Britons, 13 others -- and a dog, landing later in Malta, the Foreign Office said. Passengers will join the FCO-chartered flight to London.

"Libya is descending into hell," said passenger Helena Sheehan after landing at Gatwick.

"The airport is like nothing I've ever seen in my whole life," the 66-year-old said. "It's absolute chaos. There's just thousands and thousands of people trying to get out."

Jan McKeogh said she had heard of "absolute atrocities" being committed which were too upsetting to describe.

"Monday night was the turning point for us," she said.

"Chinooks flew over our house and there were machine gun blasts shortly afterwards. It's usually a very, very safe area but there were absolute maniacs over there."

A third charter flight is en route to Libya from Gatwick and a second British Royal Air Force transport plane is on standby in nearby Malta.

Foreign Secretary William Hague chaired a meeting of Britain's crisis response committee COBRA to formulate plans to evacuate British workers stranded in remote desert camps.

When asked about using special forces, Hague told BBC radio he would "look at every option".

British Airways and British Midland have both cancelled their daily scheduled flights between London Heathrow and Tripoli, though Libyan airline Afriqiyah Airways has maintained services to Gatwick.

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