Ananova:

There have been emotional scenes as more British citizens evacuated from war-torn Lebanon arrived home.

Among the first to emerge off a charter plane from Cyprus into the Gatwick Airport arrivals hall was Russell Green whose young daughter ran to greet him.

Arm in arm with Elena, an insurance worker from Tunbridge Wells, Kent who had been in Beirut on business, he said he felt "very fortunate."

He said of the bombs: "We could hear them and sometimes we could feel them. It was something we got used to; it was still disconcerting. We were very fortunate. I just feel for the very poor people who are ... getting the hell bombed out of them."

Alan Lane, a communication consultant from Poole, Dorset also experienced the shelling and said he could hear the Israeli jets above him. "I went to Beirut for five days on business. The day I was down to leave they bombed the runway so I was stuck," he said.

"It was pretty scary. You had bombs, AKAK fire, coming down. I think everybody wondered how we were going to get out. We were in a life-death situation. It was a war zone. The escape routes were being hit one by one."

The 63-year-old said his journey to the UK took 30 hours. He boarded HMS York in Beirut for a six hour crossing to Cyprus and slept in an RAF hanger before taking the Omni Air charter flight from Akrotiri to the west Sussex airport, along with some 230 other people.

"The British Forces were fantastic, a real credit. They made me proud to be British, "he said.

But Mr Lane criticised the British Government and said its response was "tardy."

"We wanted information .... I think people were very annoyed. I think there's a lesson here - particularly for the Foreign Office - on how to deal with their nationals in situations like this." He added: "I'm glad I'm out."