One of the workers evacuated by helicopter from Libya earlier this afternoon is Maltese. The other five passengers and four crew members were French.

Two civilian Puma helicopters landed at Malta International Airport at 3pm from Mitiga Airport in the outskirts of Tripoli, a government source said.

The passengers were evacuated by the company they worked for claiming "they had to leave because of the heavy fighting in the capital”.

The airspace over Libya has been closed since Sunday.

Photo: Kurt Sansone

At 3.45pm, a small Air Libya aircraft also landed in Malta evacuating a number of other workers. It is believed to have come from Benghazi.

Various news sources reported this morning that several aircraft were damaged as rockets rained down on Tripoli airport overnight as rival militias fought each other. Some 15 people were killed when the control tower was hit.

The United Nations evacuated its workers two days ago.

The arrival of the two helicopters brought to mind the events of February 21, 2011 when the same helicopters arrived here just minutes before two defecting pilots also flew their fighter jets to Malta.

FOREIGN MINISTRY MONITORING SITUATION 'CLOSELY'

Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

A spokeswoman for the Maltese Foreign Ministry said the situation in Libya was being closely monitored, but the embassy in Tripoli remained open.

She said the ministry had the names of some 100 Maltese currently in Libya. The Maltese embassy is currently contacting them to see if they need any help, but no evacuation is under way.

Brigadier (rtd) Carm Vassallo, chief executive at Malta Air Traffic Services told Times of Malta yesterday that the closure of Libya’s airspace has reduced air traffic over Malta as aircraft avoid the central Mediterranean corridor.

He said any air traffic between Europe and Africa had to avoid Libya and this meant aircraft were diverted over Egypt and Tunisia.

“Since Malta’s airspace happens to be above Libya’s, any north-south traffic that used to pass over us is being lost. The Libyan airspace closure has hit us badly because it also means loss of revenue,” Brig. Vassallo said.

US: SITUATION 'DANGEROUS'

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the violence in Libya was dangerous and Washington's envoys were working to help end it.

"We are deeply concerned about the level of violence in Libya," Kerry told a news conference.

"It is dangerous and it must stop. We are working very very hard through our special envoys to find the political cohesion... that can bring people together to create stronger capacity in the government of Libya so that this violence can end."