Latest Kabul evacuation flight arrives at Brize Norton

The latest plane carrying evacuees from Afghanistan to Britain has arrived in the country in the early hours of Thursday.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says an RAF Voyager aircraft carrying around 250 people from Kabul landed at the Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire soon after midnight.

MoD figures show more than 11,500 people have now been airlifted to the UK since the evacuation mission Operation Pitting began on August 13 as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan ahead of the US-led withdrawal of western troops from the country.

This includes embassy staff, British nationals, those eligible under the Afghan relocation and assistance policy (Arap) programme, as well as some evacuees from allied countries.

The Arap programme is designed to allow those Afghans who helped the UK forces, and therefore are at risk of persecution by the Taliban, to leave the country.

The MoD said the UK has evacuated some 7,000 Afghan individuals and their families.

The number of British citizens who still need evacuating, as well as those who hold dual citizenship, remains unclear.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “every hour” will be used to help people flee and declined to rule out UK forces having to depart by the end of Friday.