Egypt evacuation: Ministers urged to fly out 20,000 Britons caught in Cairo riots

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Ministers were under pressure today to order the evacuation of Britons from Egypt.

The Foreign Office was urged to bring home up to 20,000 British tourists as America ordered an airlift of its citizens.

Egyptians protested in Cairo for a seventh day in a popular uprising against the 30-year rule of president Hosni Mubarak which has claimed 138 lives in looting and clashes with police.

Contingency plans have been drawn up for a British evacuation but stranded tourists and MPs accused the Government of dragging its feet as tension rose in cities across Egypt.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said there was "no alternative but to evacuate British nationals from Egypt". Cairo airport was in chaos this afternoon with children and families forced to sleep on the floor.

Shouting matches erupted as flights back to Britain were cancelled or delayed. There were reports of a fist fight as thousands crammed inside the airport's new Terminal 3 seeking a flight home.

In an attempt to reduce tensions, the airport's departures board stopped announcing flight times. A Cairo flight due to arrive at Heathrow at 1pm was delayed until at least 6.20pm, with many forced to travel via Turkey.

Donatella Gabrielli, 50, a health consultant, arrived in Heathrow this morning having taken a flight to Istanbul to leave Cairo. Her own flight had been cancelled and she was told the next available flight would be on Friday.

She said: "There were people who had been at Cairo airport for three days, children sleeping on the floor and no clear announcements about what we should do.

"I heard someone say that there were flights to Istanbul, so I got one. The airport was chaotic, and the British embassy was a lot less helpful than other embassies.

"During the last three days I could hear gunshots and explosions and we could see smoke rising from Tahrir Square.

"All the tourists were advised not to go there. There were roadblocks in the evenings where tanks would try to impose the curfew.

"It was hard to even get a taxi to the airport last night."

Ministers were updating the Commons this afternoon on the crisis. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "It's absolutely right that we would look at contingency planning because the safety of British nationals is our priority. But we are not evacuating anyone yet.

"Our travel advice remains that we are advising against all but essential travel to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez."

British nationals without a "pressing need" to be in Cairo, Alexandria or Suez are also being advised to leave by commercial flights where it is safe to do so. Britons in other parts of Egypt are being told to stay indoors when protests occur.

Around 20,000 UK citizens are thought to be holidaying in Egypt - the majority in "calm" resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh.

Tory MP Richard Ottaway, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: "The situation out there is dangerous and people should heed the advice of the Foreign Office.

"If the situation deteriorates, the Government should be prepared to evacuate British citizens."

The US evacuation flights are understood to be taking many dependants of embassy staff out of the country. The wives and children of most British diplomats have already left. The Foreign Office now has a team at Cairo airport and has beefed up its presence in Egypt to help stricken Britons.

Despite the Foreign Office advice, tourists are still being sent to Egypt on cut-price deals. Holiday firms such as Thomson and Thomas Cook were today offering five-star packages for £433 to Red Sea resorts and insisting that tourist areas were safe.

Travel website Opodo was advertising rooms in hundreds of hotels, including many in the "no go" Nile resort of Luxor. Thomson, which has a departure to Sharm el Sheikh tomorrow, said: "As the Foreign Office advice has not changed for Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada, and Marsa Alam and as it is safe to do so, our operations will continue as scheduled."

How the stand-off could unfold

What is likely to happen next?

There are three political scenarios, according to Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle East Policy Studies at City University. One involves a brutal police clampdown on demonstrators, probably if they break the curfew. This could save President Mubarak and allow the new vice-president, Omar Suleiman, to gradually come to the fore.

The second is that the police return to the streets but in a non-confrontational role, merely to try to prevent crime. "They need to replace the local community-watch vigilante groups with the proper police, because in a way you start to fire up people power," she said. This could allow President Mubarak to make it through to the September election, when he could decide not to stand again. "The third scenario is that there is more repression but it doesn't contain the situation and you spin into a period of prolonged chaos," Professor Hollis said. "I think that is the least likely."

Will it turn into a grass-roots revolution?

The absence of a charismatic revolutionary leader makes this unlikely, according to experts. While the Nobel laureate and pro-democracy campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei has featured in media reports, his presence in Cairo's Tahrir Square went unnoticed by many.

Why are the police so hated while the army appears less feared?

The police have been used as the instrument to enforce Mubarak's 30-year military rule, using beatings and torture. The army has been the main beneficiary of America's $1.2 billion annual funding of Egypt and many in it share the same concerns as the Egyptian population.

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