Kabul

"Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday, the plane was practically stolen from us, it flew into Iran with an unidentified group of passengers onboard instead of airlifting Ukrainians. Our next three evacuation attempts were also not successful because our people could not get into the airport," he said, Tass reported.

With the return of the Taliban to Kabul on August 15, all banking activities were closed and they are still shut, Afghan media reported. An angry man, who waited to withdraw his money from Kabul Bank, said that there were no jobs and people had no money for buying bread. He said that people might start looting and other crimes if the banks stayed closed and commerce stopped, reports said.

"All flights at the Hamid Karzai International Airport are suspended until further notice. Passengers looking to fly to different regions around the country and abroad will be notified in advance when flights will be resumed. These measures are taken to avoid crowds and unrest in the airport," read a statement published on the agency's Facebook page, Tass reported.

Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Suhail Shaheen told BBC amid reports that the UK will press for a deadline extension for international evacuations beyond August 31. "Foreign forces should withdraw on the deadline they have announced earlier. Otherwise, it is a clear violation," Shaheen said. The spokesman added the Taliban's reaction to such a move would be a decision for the group's leadership.

A statement said that the US and German troops had been involved alongside the Afghan guards - with three other Afghans injured in the incident, the BBC reported. It's not clear who started the fighting and German officials said the three Afghans were hurt by "unknown attackers". On August 21, the US advised its citizens to avoid the area because of potential terror threats.

Since Kabul's fall to the Taliban, many government offices, schools and universities have remained closed. The Taliban has however, repeatedly called upon government employees to return to their offices and resume their work normally, but many offices in the government and private sectors including banks, schools and universities have been out of business.

Zaffer Sherrif, who was working at the NATO base in Kabul airport, said all roads in Kabul looked deserted except the one leading to the airport which was choked with heavy traffic as people were in a hurry to leave the country. "Around thousands of Talibanis sat on the runway to disrupt the flight operation and started cover-shot. Later, we were evacuated to Doha from where we have reached India," he said.

Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday accused the West of seeking "to create panic and chaos" in Afghanistan, following the Taliban's takeover of the capital Kabul. Muttaqi claimed that the only place in chaos right now is the Kabul airport, where people, he alleged, are being shot and killed, the BBC reported.

"We know of cases, a small number that we know of... We don't have perfect visibility, but we know of a small number of cases where some Americans and certainly, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said in that statement, Afghans-Afghans that we want to evacuate have been harassed and, in some cases, beaten," Kirby said at the briefing, Al Arabiya reported.

The minister said that the queue is flowing better on Sunday as the Taliban were marshalling people into separate UK and US evacuation queues, which was "making a big difference", the BBC reported. Meanwhile, the UK government said seven Afghan civilians had died in the chaotic crowds outside the airport. As many as 731 had been processed on Sunday morning and were set to fly, Heappey said.