Heartbreaking footage shows toddler being passed through a crowd to American soldiers at Kabul airport amid chaotic scenes

Thousands of Afghans have amassed outside the airport and attempted to board evacuation flights since the Taliban seized control on Sunday

Harrowing footage shows a toddler being passed through a crowd to an American soldier behind a wall amid chaotic scenes at Kabul airport.

Thousands of Afghans have amassed outside the airport and attempted to board evacuation flights since the Taliban seized control on Sunday, as other videos emerged of parents handing their children to military staff in the hope of getting them on evacuation flights.

A clip posted to Twitter by BBC correspondent Yalda Hakim this morning shows a young child being hoisted over the wall by members of the crowd and passed to an American soldier, who lifts her over the barrier.

The entrance to the Baron hotel, near Kabul airport, has become the focal point where Afghans seeking refuge from the jihadist militants have been gathering. The route also leads to the facilities of other countries which are carrying out evacuations.

Over 5,000 people have been evacuated in the last day alone though many are struggling to leave without the required documentation.

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that Taliban members were preventing people from getting into the airport compound, including those with the necessary documents to travel. A Taliban official said that commanders and soldiers had fired into the air to disperse crowds outside the airport, resulting in injuries.

Twelve people have been killed in and around the airport since the Taliban seized control of the capital on Sunday, a NATO and a Taliban official said. The deaths were caused either by gun shots or by stampedes.

Taliban fighters were last night accused forming a "ring of steel" around the airport, with the militants also reportedly beating up Afghans and tearing up their passports and other travel documents.

Evacuation flights have resumed following a temporary halt due to massive overcrowding at the airport. The US may take up to 80,000 Afghans, with 3,300 moved so far. The UK has announced that it will take around 20,000.

President Biden on Thursday vowed that US forces would remain until the evacuation of Americans was finished, even if that meant staying past the August 13 deadline for withdrawal set by his administration.

The President, who has faced international criticism about the US departure, claimed that a chaotic exit was inevitable. "The idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens," he told NBC News.

US officials have told the Taliban "that we expect them to allow all American citizens, all third-country nationals, and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters in Washington.

Meanwhile, the British government has been criticised for the low number of Afghans offered sanctuary in the UK. Just 5,000 Afghans will be allowed to resettle in the UK in the next year.

The first Britons and Afghan refugees touched down in the UK yesterday following an RAF rescue mission. Officials are aiming to take 1,200 to 1,500 people from Afghanistan a day.