Britain's stalled attempts to evacuate nationals from what is rapidly turning into a disastrous civil war in Libya finally got off the ground thanks to oil giant BP.
The Foreign Office confirmed last night it had managed to load 300 Britons onto a plane at Tripoli.
An initial flight chartered to take them home failed to take off from London's Gatwick airport having developed a technical fault on the ground.
The plane did eventually take off, albeit ten hours later than expected.
Having postponed a diplomatic trip to the US earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary W. Hague told a press conference that more planes were on the way, including one chartered from Italy .
Russia, CIS countries, Portugal, Turkey, France and the EU had already pulled out thousands of citizens, using a variety of air sea and land evacuations as the North African state looks set to be plunged into a bloody civil war following a violent backlash against protesters ordered by dictator Colonel Gaddaffi.
