Former KMIZ employee gives a first-hand account of conditions in Kabul

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A former KMIZ employee is giving a firsthand account of what it was like on the ground in Kabul as thousands of Afghan's rushed onto the airport tarmac.

Charlotte Bellis is a senior producer for Al Jazeera English, she is a former employee of ABC 17 news.

She talked about the current situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

We learned early this morning that all commercial flights we're going to be stopped because of just chaos at the airport, 1000s of people flooding in and just overwhelming security and making their way onto the tarmac. Later in the day, we understood that no military flights were able to take off any longer either. Because there was so many people on the tarmac and US forces of which we understand they're about 6000 were unable to secure the airport. And to the extent that to Taliban members who were trying to do crowd control on the exterior of the airport were shot by US forces.

The Taliban were trying to disperse crowds by shooting into the air so there was a lot of panic. And at the end of the day, the there was really little movement. In terms of any evacuations because of just the number of people on the tarmac, there was some horrific videos that came out, showing Afghan civilians chasing c 17 planes, American planes down the runway and clinging on to the wheels, so that when the plane took off, and there was actually video showing people falling from the plane, so just a really horrific situation there and very little security and coordination and just general anarchie, which has led to 1000s of Americans and other foreigners being stuck at the airport, unable to be evacuated, because the planes cannot take off without risking the lives of American civilians

Charlotte Bellis