Callum May
Reporting from Heathrow airport

More British-Lebanese families have arrived in London – without any certainty about when they will return to Beirut.

Natalie Kesserwani, a British-Lebanese woman who lives in central Beirut, arrived on a scheduled flight at Heathrow on Monday afternoon with her mother and children.

As she pushed her large pink suitcases wrapped in cellophane through Terminal 3, she said she was likely to stay with family in the UK for the long term.

“The situation is becoming very intense. There is really no safe area in Lebanon. Any area can be targeted and hit. If it’s the cyber boom sounds, or the actual attack sounds, they’re very loud and scary.”

Kesserwani said she feared Lebanon “turning into Gaza”.

“The destruction is everywhere, all around the country,” she says.

Like Kesserwani, Christopher Fawaz arrived on a scheduled flight from Beirut and was met by his father Abdullah at Heathrow.

He said he saw long lines of people sleeping on the street on the way to the airport in Beirut. “The airport seems in disarray,” he said.

“There are people sleeping on the gate of the airport, in front of the airport. I’m not sure if it’s because they have nowhere to stay or they are just waiting for the soonest flight available to get out.”

Image source, BBC/Callum May