An Afghan businesswoman who escaped the country on a military plane has told the BBC of her mixed emotions.

"It was a bit of relief... when you see all these people you feel a bit relaxed. But still you think about those people who have been left behind," Hassina Syed told the BBC's Kirsty Wark.

On Tuesday the official running the UK's evacuation efforts said that around 300 people had been flown out of Kabul airport so far.

Under a new scheme the UK government has committed to resettling 20,000 Afghan refugees in the long term.

Image source, House of Commons

As Tory MP Tom Tugendhat - a veteran who served in Afghanistan - stood during the House of Commons debate, the chamber fell quiet.

He said like many veterans, he has struggled this week "through anger and grief and rage".

Mr Tugendhat talked of "the abandonment of not just a country but the sacrifice that my friends made".

"I have been to funerals from Poole to Dunblane. I have seen good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me and a part of all of us and this week has torn open some of those wounds, left them raw and left us all hurting," he said.

Mr Tugendhat said it was not just soldiers but aid workers and diplomats "who feel the same".

He said he had spoken to the health secretary, who has already made a commitment to do more for veterans' mental health.

Image source, Reuters

Afghans who arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday have been describing their "scary" journeys of evacuation.

"We had to force our way through and my little son fell over and we were scared but we made it," one woman told Reuters.

The news agency said some who arrived wiped away tears and embraced family members in the airport.

"Everyone wants out," said the woman's husband, holding their child. "Every day is worse than the day before. We saved ourselves but we couldn't rescue our families."

One young girl, arriving with her parents, said they had witnessed shooting on their journey to get out.

"When the soldiers opened fire, it wasn't good because everyone got scared and started screaming," she said.

Image source, Reuters

The eastern city of Jalalabad has been the site of demonstrations today.

The city, in Nangarhar province, was taken over by the Taliban early on Sunday morning without fighting. Its capture meant the group secured key roads connecting Afghanistan with Pakistan.

But on Wednesday people in the area were filmed marching in support of the old Afghan flag, before gunshots were reportedly fired nearby to disperse crowds.

Video footage from the city appears to show protesters replacing a Taliban flag with that of Afghanistan as cheering crowds look on.

The Taliban's newly declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has so far been using a white flag with a black Shahada (statement of faith) on it. The black, red and green tricolour flag used by protesters today is seen to represent the ousted government.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said that discussions are taking place on the future national flag, with a decision to be made by the upcoming government.

Image source, EPA

From Geneva to Washington DC, people around the world have been holding demonstrations to show support for the Afghan people and ask governments to provide safe passage for those fleeing Taliban rule.

Here are some images from events on Tuesday:

Image source, AFP

Image source, Sopa via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Press Association

In a passionate intervention, former prime minister Theresa May has questioned the government's analysis of the situation in Afghanistan over the past several months.

"Was intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on ground so inadequate? Or did we just feel we had to follow US and hope that on a wing and a prayer it would be all right on the night?"

She also noted that the Taliban have proclaimed women will be able to work and girls go to school under Islamic law but adds that is "under their interpretation of Islamic law and we have seen before what that means for the rights of women and girls".

"Sadly the life of women and girls will not be the same They will not have the rights that they should have and they will not have the freedoms that they should have."

She further called on the government to expand it's planned refugee scheme to include "not just those who worked with British forces, who are now in fear for their lives".

Anas Haqqani, a militant commander and senior leader of the Haqqani Network has met Afghanistan's former President Hamid Karzai, according to local media.

Abdullah Abdullah, the previous government's peace envoy, was also present.

Images of the meeting have been circulating online, but it's unclear what was discussed.

The Haqqani Network, designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, oversees the Taliban's financial and military assets along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

It is currently one of the region's most powerful and feared militant groups, and has been credited with some of the most violent attacks against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years.

Mr Karzai led Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. He was succeeded by Ashraf Ghani, who has now fled the country.

On social media, some Afghans have expressed their dismay at Mr Karzai's meeting with Mr Haqqani. The militant leader was sentenced to death in 2016 but released three years later as part of an exchange for the release of two Western professors working in Kabul.

Image source, Press Association

Concluding his response, Mr Starmer says that the government was "totally unprepared for the scenario it had 18 months to prepare for".

"The lack of planning has been unforgivable," he adds.

He also questions what the broader impact of the fall of Afghanistan will be around the world.

"What does it mean for those nations who support an international rules based system when we hand over power to those who recognise no rules at all?"

Image source, Getty Images

The government says the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will aim to allow an initial 5,000 Afghans to settle in the UK, with the long-term goal a total of 20,000.

It will focus on women and children as well as religious and other minorities in greater danger from the Taliban.

In addition, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, launched on 1 April, was designed to resettle interpreters and other people who worked for the UK in Afghanistan.

The Home Office says it has resettled 2,000 former Afghan staff and their families in the UK since 22 June. The target is 5,000 by the end of this year under this scheme.

But not all who have applied have been accepted, according to the Sulha Alliance, which campaigns for the rights of Afghan interpreters.

Read more here.

In the UK parliamentary debate, Labour leader Keir Starmer is now responding to Mr Johnson.

He says the desperate situation in Afghanistan requires leadership and calls on the prime minister to "snap out of his complacency".

Mr Starmer raises a comment from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said that some people who "worked with us will not get back". He says this is "unconscionable" and calls on the government to outline a plan to help them escape.

He also highlights some reports from NGOs that an evacuation plane left almost empty this morning because people couldn't get through the airport - and asks the government to respond.

Attacking the government's slow response to the crisis, he criticises Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who only returned to London from his holiday after the fall of Kabul. "You cannot co-ordinate an international response from the beach" he says.

Image source, AFP

Several flights have successfully left Kabul airport in recent hours but European countries are struggling to get people into the complex.

French, German, Dutch and Czech planes have all taken off but there are reports of shots being fired as evacuees try to approach the airport gates.

Overnight a Dutch military plane took off carrying 40 people, but none of them Dutch or Afghans. The plane was allowed only half an hour on the ground. One Dutch Afghan family said they were refused entry by US forces at the gate. Further attempts are being made today but witnesses have told Dutch media that warning shots and tear gas were fired at the airport's northern gate. In the past few minutes Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag has said the first Dutch citizens have flown out of Kabul and are on their way back.

This morning France said 25 French nationals and 184 Afghans had been evacuated from Kabul to Abu Dhabi. The government said some of them had been "exfiltrated" from the embassy, where they had taken refuge, and they would all be heading to Paris soon. Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian praised French diplomats, police and military for their "courageous efforts".

A Czech plane landed in Prague on Wednesday morning carrying 87 people including Jiri Baloun, the ambassador to Afghanistan, and dozens of Afghans who had helped Czech officials.

Meanwhile, the first plane carrying evacuees landed in Germany, with 139 people on board. They had flown in from Uzbekistan, where the German government is co-ordinating its Kabul effort to bring out some 10,000 people.

Albania says it is expecting its first Afghan arrivals today. Along with North Macedonia and Kosovo, it's agreed to provide temporary accommodation before they head to the US.

Videos on social media show people taking to the streets in the eastern city of Jalalabad, asking the Taliban not to change Afghanistan's national flag.

It follows reports of similar demonstrations in other areas yesterday.

Some videos appear to show gunfire in the area where crowds were gathered. It is unclear if anyone was hurt.

Former prime minister Theresa May asks whether Mr Johnson spoke to the secretary general of Nato to discuss putting together an alliance in order to replace departing US forces.

Johnson says he spoke with Nato's Jens Stoltenberg "the other day" but he says it is an "illusion" that there is appetite among any of the UK's partners for a "continued military presence" or military solution.

He says "that idea" ended with the combat mission in 2018 and that the prospect of re-deploying thousands of British troops to the country "is not an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this house".

Warning: Graphic and upsetting content

Marcus Yam, a photographer and a foreign correspondent for the LA Times newspaper, has been recounting an incident he witnessed near Kabul airport on Tuesday.

Yam said he witnessed dozens of Taliban firing into the air, aiming weapons at crowds and using sticks, rope and other means to lash civilians.

Graphic images he captured , external show at least one woman hurt and a young child left bloodied with what appears to be a head injury.

Yam also wrote that he was whipped in the leg photographing the scene.

Image source, LA Times via Getty

Image source, LA Times via Getty

Boris Johnson says it is almost 20 years since the 9/11 attacks, which led to Nato allies going into Afghanistan "to do whatever we could to stabilise Afghanistan".

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood asks if the prime minister agrees that the UK is now ceding power back to the very same insurgency.

The prime minister says that "we succeeded in that mission" and training camps in Afghanistan were destroyed.

"Plots were foiled because our servicemen and women were there," he says.

Image source, Press Association

Boris Johnson is now on his feet and addressing a packed parliament.

He begins the debate by saying that "sacrifice in Afghanistan is seared into our national conscience" and that it is "absolutely right" that MPs have been recalled from their summer holidays to debate the situation.

In response to a question from MP John Baron who asked for assurances that all of those Afghans "who have helped the British Council" in its work, Johnson says the government will do everything it can to support those who supported the UK mission in Afghanistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has urged Western nations to halt deportations of Afghan citizens following the Taliban takeover.

Several European countries - including Germany and the Netherlands - had already announced last week they were suspending deportations as the Taliban seized large swathes of the country.

But a number of other EU countries had pledged to continue with deportations. Last week Austria warned the European Commission against preventing the removal of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe, despite the Taliban's advances.

Mr Grandi said it was also important that Afghanistan's neighbours, particularly Iran and Pakistan, keep their borders open to give an escape route to Afghans with genuine fears for their safety under Taliban rule.

A major resettlement programme might be needed in the long term, Mr Grandi said.

It is estimated that 550,000 Afghans have been have been uprooted within the country since January, though the number crossing international borders appear to be limited so far.

Image source, Press Association

The UK Parliament is being recalled from it's summer recess this morning to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. MPs hadn't been due to return to Westminster until 6 September.

The debate in the House of Commons kicked off at 09:30 BST (08:30 GMT) and is expected to last for around five hours. The motion before MPs is “that this House has considered the situation in Afghanistan”. No vote is expected.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a statement to the House before facing questions from MPs.

Some politicians have questioned what recalling parliament at this late stage will achieve. Former defence minister Johnny Mercer, who served three tours in Afghanistan with the British army, told the BBC: "Parliament's being recalled. So what? The airport is under siege."

This is the first summer recall since 2013 when then-prime minister David Cameron called an emergency debate to discuss the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Image source, Reuters

The former Afghan president fled the country on Sunday - but it is unclear where he went or where he currently is.

In the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Kabul, there was speculation he had travelled to a neighbouring nation like Uzbekistan or Tajikistan and other reports he had headed for Oman.

On Wednesday there were unconfirmed and unverified reports he had been spotted in Abu Dhabi.

The departure of Mr Ghani - president of Afghanistan since 2014 - remains deeply controversial. Government ministers have been among those to criticise him for fleeing.

Mr Ghani defended the move, saying on Facebook: "To avoid bloodshed, I thought it would be better to leave".

If you're just tuning in to our coverage, here are the key developments over the past few hours:

• The Taliban's leaders have said they will soon show themselves to the world with "no secrecy" - in contrast to the past 20 years, when they lived largely in hiding
• The group's co-founder Mullah Baradar is back in the Afghan city of Kandahar and is expected to arrive in the capital Kabul by either Wednesday or Thursday
• Foreign planes flying out of Afghanistan have begun landing home carrying citizens and Afghans. Australia has evacuated 26 people, Germany 131, and a Dutch flight departed with 40 people on board
• However, one Dutch Afghan citizen said he was barred from boarding the plane by US guards
• Signs of life are cautiously resuming in Kabul. One Al-Jazeera journalist said shops and restaurants were slowly re-opening, though few women were on the streets