The situation at Kabul airport is “stabilising”, Dominic Raab has said, after crowds rushed to flee the city.

The foreign secretary admitted he was taken by “surprise” at the speed of the Taliban’s advance over the weekend, but vowed the efforts of veterans in the conflict “wasn’t all for nothing”.

It comes as scenes of chaos were seen at Kabul’s airport over the weekend as hundreds of desperate Afghans, foreign diplomats and officials attempt to flee Afghanistan.

“The position at the airport is stabilising. There’s been a surge of US and UK troops – we’ve got 600 extra personnel there,” Mr Raab told Kay Burley on Sky News.

“It is critically important, not just for the stability on the ground for Afghans, but critically for our evacuation effort.

“We’ve made real progress. We had 150 British nationals come out on Sunday. Over the last week we have also had 289 of those Afghan nationals who have served the UK so loyally in Afghanistan.

“And we expect over the next 24 hours to have 350 more British nationals and Afghan nationals who have worked for us coming out.

“So the situation is stabilising but obviously we are monitoring it very carefully.

“I do think that the airport is more stable today than it was yesterday, and we need to make sure that we consolidate that in the days ahead.”

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