Shocking vid appears to show Afghan stowaway trapped in landing gear of US plane after jumping on wheels to flee Taliban

 SHOCKING video appears to show a stowaway trapped in the landing gear of a US plane after jumping on the wheels to flee the Taliban.

Several Afghans were seen jumping onto the wheels of the C-17 as it prepared to take off from Kabul airport and three fell hundreds of feet to their deaths.

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The stowaway appears to be trapped in the landing gearCredit: East2West

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What appears the stowaways falling from a C-17 leaving KabulCredit: Jam Press

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Afghans running along side the C-17 plane as it was preparing to take off

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Some can be seen clinging onto the wheel bay

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Footage shows the plane taking off with some people clinging to the sideCredit: Universal News & Sport

In the footage - which The Sun has chosen not to show due to its distressing nature - the man can be seen hanging from the side of the plane and it was reported the crew found a body in the landing gear.

The discovery was made when the crew struggled to close the landing gear and then made an emergency landing in a third country, the Washington Post reports.

It appears the man became trapped in a panel that is part of the landing gear mechanism and which closes when the wheels are retracted.

The tragedy shows the extent to which Afghan are desperate to escape what they fear will be a return to the Taliban's brutal rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islam.

In chaotic scenes echoing the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, petrified men, women and children were filmed trying to get on aircraft after the Taliban stormed the capital.

With civilian flights suspended, many turned to US Air Force aircraft to try get out of the country.

Separate footage shows Afghans running alongside a C-17 as it prepares to take off with around a dozen holding on to the wheel bay.

Images taken from the ground show stowaways clinging to the plane as it took off.Harrowing video shows the stowaways then falling several hundred feet to their deaths after being thrown from the plane as it took off from Kabul airport.

Two of those who died are believed to aged 16 and 17 and video posted later appeared to show residents collecting their bodies.

Sporadic shooting was heard throughout the day and the US military said its forces had shot dead two armed men by the airport security fence after coming under fire.

Civilian flights were suspended amid the chaos and then the US military - which controls the airport - said military flights were halted as they re-established security and clear people from the airport.