Ukraine says people can still only flee Mariupol by car or on foot

FILE PHOTO: An elderly woman is carried into a car by service members of pro-Russian troops as she is evacuated from the city during Ukraine-Russia conflict, in the besieged southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

(Reuters) - People are still only able to flee the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol on foot or by private car as efforts to organise mass evacuations by bus to safer parts of Ukraine have failed, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Efforts to evacuate civilians - some with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - have repeatedly broken down, with both sides blaming each other.