Britain is sending a second chartered plane to Cairo to fly out Britons wanting to escape violence there and is advising its citizens to leave the city unless they have a pressing reason to stay.
The plane will leave Cairo on Saturday after bloody clashes between supporters of President Hosni Mubarak and opponents who want him to step down.
About 180 people will fly back to London on Thursday in a 200-seater plane chartered by the foreign ministry earlier this week. Britain is charging its citizens 300 pounds ($486.5) if they join the flight.
“We will provide further such flights as necessary,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. The government charters will supplement existing commercial flights.
Speaking to Sky News, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said well over 1,000 citizens had been flown out of Egypt in the last week. He said 37 nationals had so far confirmed they would be leaving on the Saturday flight.
“We are keeping pace with those who say they want to go,” he said.
Burt estimated there had been about 3,000 British nationals in the capital before the crisis began, a third of whom had already left.
A further 200 were still in Alexandria on the Mediterranean, he said.
Burt said around 20,000 British tourists remained in popular Red Sea resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh in southern Egypt, but stressed there was no indication they were at risk.
“They have supplies of food, the cash machines have been replenished. Those areas are working fine,” he said.
“So I don’t think there is any reason to pull people back — unless we have real evidence to do. But we would be ready if that needed to happen.”