Kabul airport chaos after rumours of flights to Turkey for quake relief volunteers

Taliban security forces fire into the air to disperse crowds seeking escape route from Afghan capital

Many were being turned back before they even reached Kabul international airport. AFP

Follow the latest news on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Thousands of men hurried towards Kabul’s international airport on Wednesday evening after a rumour spread that Turkey’s government were organising flights for volunteers to help with earthquake relief.

By 8pm the main road leading to the airport was blocked with vehicles and pedestrians. Taliban security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowds, witnesses told The National.

“Half of Kabul was on their way to the airport,” said Salahuddin, 19, high school graduate who tried to reach the airport with his father, a government employee.

They set off at about 6pm after hearing the rumour, but found themselves stuck at a roundabout near the site of the former US embassy for more than an hour.

Salahuddin said security forces were hitting cars with batons and pushing back pedestrians who were heading for the airport.

Nangyalai, 27, says he too had been convinced to head to the airport by a friend who called at 7pm from outside his home in eastern Kabul.

“My friend called and said, ‘Have you heard, they’re sending people to Turkey? Hurry, let’s go to the airport'.”

Nangyalai said he was hesitant and asked his friend how it was possible to get on a plane to Turkey without any documents or permission but his friend managed to convince him and within minutes they were on the street looking for a taxi to take five of them on the 35-minute journey to the airport.

“Car after car passed but no one stopped. When we finally found one, he was scared to the go to the airport but we said we’d pay extra.”

Nangyalai said the crowds grew larger and the traffic jams increased as they approached the road to the airport entrance.

“Eventually we had to walk but we could hear the aerial fire as we got closer and closer to the airport.”

People were running away from the gunfire then rushing back towards the airport, over and over again

Nangyalai,
Kabul resident

He said the crowd grew larger as they got nearer. “People were running away from the gunfire then rushing back towards the airport, over and over again.

“We waited for half an hour, constantly trying to move up closer and enter the airport but we saw there was no way. The crowds were too big, there were shots ringing out and eventually we just turned back to go home.”

By 11pm, Khalid Zadran, Kabul police spokesman, released a video urging Afghans not to believe the rumours because they would be turned back before reaching the airport.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Majid also warned people to stay away.

“Some people have spread rumours that undocumented people are being sent to Turkey from Kabul airport, or Turkish planes have arrived and undocumented people are being brought back to that country,” he wrote on Twitter. "These rumours have no truth. Do not enter the airport and do not disturb public order."

The brother of a survivor Gokhan Ugurlu, 35, who was pulled out of the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, reacts as a rescuer looks on. Reuters

A woman walks past flattened buildings in a street in Hatay province, Turkey. Reuters

A member of the army stands amid rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

A man reacts while sitting outside a tent of a temporary accommodation centre set up on a football pitch in Gaziantep, Turkey. Reuters

Earthquake survivors walk on a street in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters

A White Helmets volunteer holds a rescued cat in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

A Syrian boy, who lost his family in the deadly earthquake, stands amid the rubble of his family home in Jindayris. AFP

Rescuers sit by a bonfire in Hatay, Turkey. AFP

A Turkish soldier walks among destroyed buildings in Hatay. AFP

Relatives of Palestinian doctor Yusuf Darabeh, who died when the earthquake hit Turkey, comfort each other. AP Photo

People stand by a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. AP Photo

A child, injured in the earthquake, is treated at hospital in Bab Al Hawah, Syria. AP Photo

Vehicles containing aid from Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Syria border. Reuters

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Romanian firefighters load a Turkey-bound train with emergency aid near Bucharest. AP

Collapsed buildings in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

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A Turkish rescue worker checks a collapsed building in Adiyaman. AP

Rescuers in Adiyaman, Turkey. AP

A resident in front of his collapsed building in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

Syrian refugees shelter in a public market in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep, Turkey. AP

A family wait for the bodies of their relatives to be recovered in Antakya, Turkey. AP

A woman plays with a sniffer dog in Antakya, Turkey. AP

Collapsed buildings in Antakya, Turkey. AP

A Syrian woman takes care of her nephew Hasan Goayid, eight, in Islahiye district, Gaziantep. AP

A Syrian child in a tent in the Islahiye district. AP

Collapsed buildings in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

Emirati rescuers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in the regime-controlled town of Jableh, northwest of the Syrian capital. AFP

Volunteers at the Emirates Red Crescent 'Bridges of Goodness' campaign at the South Hall, Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City. Leslie Pableo for The National

Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, in Maras, Turkey. Reuters

Rescuers give water to a dog after a rescue operation in Hatay, southern Turkey. AP

A deadly earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. EPA

Fissures from the earthquake have crumpled the highway near Islahiyeh in Southern Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

A Kurdish charity's aid convoy enters Syria through the Bab Al Salama crossing with Turkey, in the northern province of Aleppo. AFP

A rescuer with a sniffer dog searches in a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey. AFP

A makeshift camp erected in a stadium in the city of Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. EPA

A woman mourns Turkish Cypriot victims of the earthquake, during a funeral procession in the Turkish occupied area in north-east coastal city of Famagusta, Cyprus. AP

Rescuers carry survivor Rabia Ofkeli, 27, from the rubble in Hatay, southern Turkey. Reuters

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad visits Aleppo university hospital. Reuters

Members of the Swiss rescue team with a four-month-old girl, Abir, who was pulled out from the rubble in Antakya. AFP

Survivors at a hospital in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

Members of the White Helmets during the fifth day of rescue operations in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

Indonesian Muslims perform a prayer for the victims at Istiqlal grand mosque in Jakarta. EPA

Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save Melda, 16, from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey. AFP

The earthquake caused a railbed overpass to collapse in Nurdagi, Turkey. AFP

A framed picture on the cracked wall of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, south-eastern Turkey. EPA

A coastal area of Iskenderun, Turkey, was flooded after the quake. Reuters

A sheet of paper lies among the rubble in Elbistan. AP

Relief supplies destined for earthquake survivors in Turkey, at a warehouse in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, Germany. AP

Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, three days after the earthquake struck. AFP

Rescuers with a child pulled out from under the rubble. Reuters

Rescuers rest on top of rubble as an aircraft drops water over a fire at the port in the quake-stricken town of Iskenderun. Reuters

A rescue worker in Kahramanmaras, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkey. AFP

People try to pull out a dog trapped beneath the rubble in Iskenderun, Turkey. Reuters

Lorries carrying humanitarian aid wait at Bab Al Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border. Reuters

Syrians warm up by a fire outside a makeshift tent near the rebel-held town of Jindayris in Syria. AFP

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The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit with a black ribbon in remembrance and mourning of the earthquake victims. Getty

Smoke billows amid an expanse of collapsed and damaged buildings in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

Dogs of the German International Search and Rescue team rest between operations in Kirikhan, Turkey. Reuters

White Helmets volunteers rescue a child trapped beneath the rubble in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

People gather to collect food and humanitarian aid in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, south-east Turkey. EPA

The statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, is surrounded by damaged buildings in Adiyaman province. AP

A plane carrying humanitarian air sent for earthquake survivors lands in Damascus. Mahmoud Rida / The National

Motorway fractured by earthquake causes car crash near Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

A tent camp has been set up at a stadium in south-eastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras to shelter families whose homes were destroyed in the quake. AFP

A displaced Syrian woman rests under a tree in a field on the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Jindayris. AFP

By Thursday morning, Facebook users in the country said their feeds were full of people posting old pictures from flights and claiming to have made it to Turkey.

“Friends, I’ve gone to Turkey,” said the caption of one photo showing a man wearing a Covid mask aboard a Turkish Airlines flight.

"Who else is going to Turkey by air?" read the caption of another photo showing a young woman pointing to a daytime sky from a plane window.

The confusion, crowds and aerial fire were reminiscent of the scenes outside the airport in August 2021 as tens of thousands of people sought to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control.

For Salahuddin, the reported recruitment of volunteers offered a second chance to reach Turkey after what he saw as a missed opportunity to do so on the evening of August 15, 2021.

“My friends called me that night saying ‘Hurry, come to the airport’, but my father just laughed at me and now those boys are in Europe and the United States," he said.