At least seven people, including three Afghan nationals who clung to a US Air Force plane to escape Taliban rule, died in a melee at the Kabul airport, as hundreds of people scrambled to board flights in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan, following the toppling of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani.

Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on August 15 after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.