BRITONS ANXIOUS EVACUATION WAIT!

Britons' anxious evacuation wait

Mr Waked's interview

As thousands of British citizens await evacuation from Lebanon, some of those stranded have been describing the situation there.
Schona Jolly, from London, is staying at a hotel in the small town of Byblos, just north of Beirut, where she says she has seen civilian targets bombed.
These included a church, a mosque and lorries hit on the roads, she said.
She told BBC News she and her friends could not leave Byblos to get to a port because the roads were too dangerous.
If you think you're close enough to get out and it's safe to do so, then you should try, because the embassy I don't think will help you do it unless you help yourself
Schona Jolly
Evacuation stepped up

She said: "If you're very close to the port your best option might be to try and see if you can get on a boat. We can't move because there is a road between here and Beirut.
"We've seen American people getting on the French ships, we've seen a British person getting on a French ship, we've seen every nationality getting out and if you think you're close enough to get out and it's safe to do so, then you should try, because the embassy I don't think will help you do it unless you help yourself."
Supplies running low
Camille and Carolanne Nehme from Glasgow, who are in the southern city of Tyre with their nine-month-old daughter Melody, say they have been unable to contact embassy staff.
Mr Nehme, 34, said: "We haven't been told anything. Everybody wants to be somewhere else but there is nowhere to go. We are staying here but really don't know what the future holds."
Mr Nehme said conditions in Tyre were difficult.
"The churches are full of people and we can always hear bombing - people are absolutely terrified. There is no fresh fruit or meat, and water is running low. There are so many elderly people here on medication and we don't know what they are going to do.
We just can't give up and leave everything behind
Marc Waked
"We have some food that we have kept but supplies are running low. My wife is breastfeeding and we are okay at the moment but if you go to the pharmacy there's nothing."
Student Andy Coombes from Cardiff had been planning to get to Jordan and fly home from there but said the bombing of the roads had made this impossible.
He described conditions under the bombing, saying: "It's pretty perturbing to have explosions going off.
"The first few bombs that went off, I was sat in the hotel and you just literally leap for cover. You dive off the side of the bed and you're just there with your heart just ticking like a clock."
Business bombed
Businessman Marc Waked has vowed to stay on in Lebanon, where he owns a dairy processing plant, despite being directly affected by the violence.
He said: "We have been the victim of an Israeli assault yesterday morning at exactly 3am in the morning by five or six missiles and the plant was completely destroyed."
Mr Waked, who has dual British and Lebanese nationality, said he had no idea why the plant, which distributed milk across the whole region, had been targeted but said it was his duty to stay and rebuild what had been destroyed.
He told BBC News: "It's something that we have to continue. We just can't give up and leave everything behind. So if we leave, who else is going to remain?"
Obviously if 22,000 people try calling the embassy that is going to cause problems
Foreign Office
Jolie Boyle, from Essex, is among thousands desperate to be evacuated from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where she is critical of the help offered by the British embassy.
She said: "They don't answer the phone. It rings and it rings and it rings and they just don't answer. And everyone says you might as well go down there.
"The other day when I went down there they didn't even take me inside the embassy. We were outside speaking to a guy who was head of security.
"He made me fill in a form, and he didn't even take me into an office - we were standing out in the blazing heat. That's the kind of treatment that we're getting over here".
A Foreign Office spokesman said the embassy was doing everything it could to help British citizens who wanted to leave.
He said extra staff had been sent from the UK to bolster the workforce of the small Beirut embassy and that they were working "flat out, 24 hours a day" in "very difficult and trying circumstances" to help British citizens in Lebanon.
He said the Foreign Office was aware of problems contacting the embassy by phone.
"Obviously if 22,000 people try calling the embassy that is going to cause problems."
He urged people to stay in touch via the Foreign Office and embassy websites and listen to English language broadcasts, advising those with no access to media to phone someone who did have access.
But he said it was simply not possible for staff to call the 22,000 British citizens in Lebanon individually to check on them.
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