Moment Sky News reporter spots Taliban fighters marching into Kabul as he broadcasts live on air from Afghan capital

 Taliban insurgents were seen rolling into the capital of Afghanistan during a live broadcast today as westerners desperately attempt to flee the embattled nation. 

Sky News' chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay reported that he saw a Taliban procession in Kabul, having first heard shouting while filming on a hotel. 

He then spotted a group walking with the jihadi group's white flag. Mr Ramsay said in a broadcast: 'I think it's a procession of the Taliban, yes it is, there's the white flag, and they're coming down the street just next to us.

'They're led by a white flag and they're chanting as they go down... I can't see people with weapons at all - doesn't mean they're not but they're not openly carrying weapons as far as I can tell.

'You couldn't ask for a better illustration of the fact that the Taliban aren't just in Kabul but they're right in the centre of it, they've just walked past the Presidential Palace.' 

Harrowing pictures show people waiting near Kabul Airport's runway to escape from the country's capital - as the Taliban entered the presidential palace.Harrowing pictures show people waiting near Kabul Airport's runway to escape from the country's capital - as the Taliban entered the presidential palace

Harrowing pictures show people waiting near Kabul Airport's runway to escape from the country's capital - as the Taliban entered the presidential palace

Scenes from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul are pictured above

Scenes from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul are pictured above

Concerned passengers were also seen inside the Hamid Karzai International Airport earlier today - as news came that the country's president had left, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban.  

And several hundred employees of the US embassy in Kabul have been evacuated from Afghanistan, a US defense official said Sunday, as the Taliban entered the capital.

The international airport in Kabul is still open to commercial flights, the official said on condition of anonymity, as evacuation efforts accelerated.

Boris Johnson said the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan had 'accelerated' the current situation and claimed that the Government is getting Britons out of the country 'as fast as we can'. 

Now, following a meeting of Cobra, Mr Johnson said the situation in Afghanistan remains 'difficult', and the Government's priority is 'to make sure we deliver on our obligations to UK nationals in Afghanistan, to all those who have helped the British effort... over 20 years and to get them out as fast as we can.' 

The Prime Minister today said that it is 'clear' there is 'going to be very shortly a new government in Kabul, or a new political dispensation'.

He told Sky News that it was 'fair to say the US decision to pull out has accelerated things, but this has in many ways been a chronicle of an event foretold'. 

Taliban are seen inside the presidential palace in Kabul amid a withdrawal of western forces

Taliban are seen inside the presidential palace in Kabul amid a withdrawal of western forcesPictured: Scenes at the airport in Kabul as the Taliban enter Afghanistan's capital

Pictured: Scenes at the airport in Kabul as the Taliban enter Afghanistan's capital 

People wait at the airport in Kabul as the Taliban roll back into the country's capital

People wait at the airport in Kabul as the Taliban roll back into the country's capital 

Mr Johnson added: 'I think we've known for some time this is the way things were going and as I said before, this is a mission whose military component really ended for the UK in 2014, what we're dealing with now is the very likely advent of a new regime in Kabul, we don't know exactly what kind of a regime that will be.'    

Tory MPs blasted the PM and Mr Raab over the escalating crisis and called for British troops to be redeployed. 

Tom Tugendhat, Tobias Ellwood and Johnny Mercer, all former soldiers, said the UK needs to take action to push back the Taliban and rescue civilians.

Mr Tugendhat slammed the Foreign Secretary and questioned why Britain had not heard from him 'in about a week'. The Chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee branded it 'the biggest single foreign policy disaster' since Suez.

Defence Committee chairman Mr Ellwood said the fighting was a humiliation for the West.

'We assembled the most incredible, technologically advanced alliance the world has ever seen and we are being defeated by an insurgency that's armed with AK47s and RPGs.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister needed to set out plans to prevent the fall of the Afghan government turning into a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of displaced people trying to escape the Taliban.

There was particular concern about the plight of those Afghans who had worked with the UK and other Western countries, amid fears they would be targeted by the insurgents.

A Taliban fighter poses with a US-made Afghan air force Blackhawk helicopter at captured Kandahar airfield

A Taliban fighter poses with a US-made Afghan air force Blackhawk helicopter at captured Kandahar airfield 

A US Chinook helicopter flies over the city of Kabul as diplomatic vehicles leave the compound after the Taliban advanced on the Afghan capital

The Taliban insisted they were seeking a peaceful transfer of power and promised an amnesty for those who had worked with foreign countries or the Afghan government.

However such assurances were met with deep scepticism amid fears they would return to the hardline policies they pursued before they were forced out in 2001 - including the suppression of women and girls.

Mr Tugendhat told BBC News: 'The real danger is that we are going to see every female MP murdered, we are going to see ministers strung up on street lamps.'

Labour called for the urgent expansion of the scheme to re-settle Afghans who had worked with the UK.

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said she had been inundated with appeals for help and that the Government had just hours to resolve the issue.

'Some of them have already been killed, others have received threats to themselves and their families.

'We have an obligation as a country to make sure that they are safe,' she told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

Images show Kabul Airport descending into chaos as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan continues
Images show Kabul Airport descending into chaos as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan continues

Images show Kabul Airport descending into chaos as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan continues

The Taliban standing on a roadside in Kandahar after taking over more parts of Afghanistan. The scale and speed of the Taliban advance has shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country

The Taliban standing on a roadside in Kandahar after taking over more parts of Afghanistan. The scale and speed of the Taliban advance has shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country

The Home Office said it had already resettled 3,300 Afghan staff and their families and was continuing to fulfil its 'international obligations and moral commitments'.

Among senior parliamentarians there was shock at the speed of the Afghan collapse after the West had invested billions in building up the country's armed forces.

In the course of little over a week many cities fell to the Taliban without a fight after tribal elders stepped in to negotiate the withdrawal of government forces in order to avoid bloodshed.

While much of the anger was directed at the US for its decision to withdraw its forces, precipitating the collapse, some MPs expressed concern that Britain could have done more to avert the crisis.

Mr Johnson said however that while the US decision had 'accelerated things', the end was inevitable.

'This has been in many ways something that has been a chronicle of an event foretold.

'We've known for a long time that this was the way things were going,' he said.

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