OTTAWA, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Flights to evacuate Canadians from the violence in Libya were scheduled to start arriving in Tripoli Thursday, a federal minister in Ottawa announced.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a news conference at least 91 of the 331 Canadians registered at the embassy have requested evacuation. However, there are as many as 150 more Canadians in Libya that aren't registered, many of them oil and gas workers, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Cannon said the evacuation flights out of Tripoli to Europe would also include citizens of "like-minded" countries in order to fill the aircraft.
Tripoli's airport was still open early Wednesday, but officials warned it could close at any time as thousands of demonstrators were meeting with a military response ordered by embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi, the report said. The airport in Benghazi, where there were major demonstrations, is closed.
Two oil and gas companies from Alberta said they had either evacuated their employees or were in the process of doing so, the CBC said.
