High winds, rough seas hamper Libyan evacuations

IRAKLIO, Crete — Two ships braved churning seas Thursday to whisk some 4,500 Chinese workers away from strife-torn Libya to the island of Crete, while rough weather further west in the Mediterranean left hundreds of Americans stranded on a ferry in Tripoli.

As tens of thousands of foreigners sought to flee fierce fighting in Libya, European countries scrambled to send more ships and military planes to the North African nation and Britain mulled whether to send in its military to rescue stranded oil workers.

Several airlines suspended flights to Libya on Thursday — Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Alitalia — amid scenes of chaos and deteriorating security and safety at Tripoli airport.

Those who made it out described a frightening scene: bodies hanging from electric poles in Libya's eastern port of Benghazi and militia trucks driving around full of dead bodies. One video showed a tank apparently crushing a car with people inside.

The first big group of U.N. workers evacuated from Libya arrived in Rome on Thursday night aboard an Italian C-130 and said the situation in Tripoli was deteriorating.

"We did see much violence, yes, but the city is quiet and calm now," said Ramesh Tuladhar of the U.N. Development Program, who was one of 22 U.N. workers who arrived along with a similar number of Italians at Italy's military Pratica di Mare military base near Rome.

A second C-130 with 97 people aboard arrived from Sabha, mostly with tourists from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Slovenia.

"All was under control, a very heavy control, under these people from the leader," German tourist Holger Gwosdz said. "Now I'm feeling free. Thank you Italy."

In Crete, some passengers smiled and waved from the decks of the Greek-flagged Hellenic Spirit as it arrived from Benghazi, a city that has broken away from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's control. Others departing the ship needed medical attention.

"The situation was pretty bad over there ... we heard lots of gunfire and saw many burned-out buildings," Pantelis Kimendiadis, a Greek oil worker employed near Benghazi, told The Associated Press moments after stepping off the ferry.

"Everyone is really tired and just glad to be out of there ... We have Libyan friends and colleagues who got us out. Our lives were in their hands," he said.

Up to 15,000 Chinese are expected to arrive by ferry to Crete and fly home on chartered flights — about half the number of Chinese working in Libya on construction and oil projects.

Greece has sent four more ferries to Libya, along with a frigate and three military transport planes, and Prime Minister George Papandreou has offered to help other nations evacuate their people.

One of the military planes left Tripoli for Greece late Thursday carrying 80 Greek nationals, the foreign ministry said.

People who managed to flee Tripoli by air described chaos at the airport, with people shoving and climbing over each other to get on planes. Amateur video showed crowds of people jammed shoulder to shoulder, some appearing to be camped out.

"The airport is just a zoo. There's about 10,000 people there, all trying to get out," Ewan Black of Britain told the BBC as he got off a flight at London's Gatwick Airport. "It's just absolutely manic, basically it's uncontrolled."

"I lost all my luggage. It's literally bodies climbing over bodies to get to the door," Black added.

Americans who eagerly climbed aboard the Maria Dolores ferry at Tripoli's As-shahab port on Wednesday faced a long delay in their travel plans. Strong winds have been whipping up high waves in the Mediterranean, and the 600-passenger catamaran ferry was not likely to leave for Malta until Friday.

"The ferry will depart when the weather improves. At the moment, we're anticipating this will happen by tomorrow morning, but we're waiting for an updated weather report," said Elijah Waterman of the U.S. Embassy in Malta.

In Sarajevo, the fist two evacuation flights carrying Bosnian citizens land shortly after midnight local time. Since Tuesday afternoon relatives and friends have been waiting at the airport for the arrival of the first 275 of some 1500 Bosnians in Libya. The flights have been canceled and delayed several times since Tuesday, creating frustration, even panic among the waiting relatives.

Sefik Imamovic, among the first Bosnians to arrive, said a handful of Libyan police officers had been killed in a stampede while trying to control the crowds at the airport.

Britain's government discussed whether its military special forces will be needed to rescue U.K. oil workers and colleagues from other nations stranded in Libya's desert camps. Britain's Foreign Office said navy frigate HMS Cumberland, sent to assist with Britons stranded in Libya, had left Benghazi for Malta with 68 British nationals onboard. A flight carrying 177 adults and four children, which left Tripoli this morning, has also landed in London.

Germany rerouted two navy frigates and one support ship to help with evacuations and had two military aircraft on standby Malta, while the Dutch government flew a C-130 military transport plane to Tripoli and was rounding up Dutch citizens to bring home.

India planned to transport 1,200 citizens by ferry to the nearby Egyptian city of Alexandria over the weekend and fly them home.

Turkey managed to evacuate more than 7,000 of its 25,000 citizens in Libya, mostly by two ships that arrived Thursday in the southern Turkish port of Marmaris, and said it would evacuate more foreigners from Libya.

Witnesses said Benghazi, now controlled by anti-government protesters, has seen fierce fighting, looting, and killings.

Ali Tumkaya, the human resources manager for Turkey's Sembol company, which was building a university in Benghazi, said militias raided the Benghazi airport. He saw vans with more than 20 dead bodies, who Tumkaya said appeared to be mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa.

Another Turkish evacuee saw dead men hanging in the street.

"Our construction site was burned down. The looters came. There were a few men hanging from poles, electric poles," Serdar Taskin, who worked for the Mammar Arabia company in Benghazi, told the AP in Marmaris. He did not know if the dead were protesters or Gadhafi supporters.

George Suchomel, a Canadian from Collingwood, Ontario, who works for the German construction company Arcadis, said his company's offices and lodgings in Benghazi were raided and cars and electronic equipment were looted.

Suchomel, who was evacuated by a Turkish ship, gave AP a video that he said was given to him by militiamen in Benghazi to smuggle out. It showed the aftermath of a scene in which a military tank seems to have run over a red car with some people still trapped inside and others running around frantically and shouting.