'I've seen more missiles in the last three days than I did in my seven years in the RAF' - Former Crawley and Mid Sussex resident not planning to leave Middle East 'unless it gets a lot worse'
An aviation worker who has lived in Crawley and Mid Sussex is one of more than 100,000 Britons in the Middle East who may need evacuating as conflict in the Middle East escalates.
The war in the Middle East was triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran on Saturday (February 28) and expanded on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries in under 10 hours.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said more than 500 people have been killed since the conflict began, including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A total of 102,000 Britons have registered their presence in the Middle East with the UK government and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC there were an estimated 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries, where much of the airspace is closed.
Foreign Office sources said no evacuation was imminent but the government was preparing for potential scenarios if commercial flights remained grounded. British nationals in the region have been urged to register their presence to receive updates from the Foreign Office.
And one of those Britons is Tim Barnes, an aircraft engineer working and living in Jordan. The 60-year-old ex-Ifield resident, who also used to live in Hurstpierpoint, said: “I have had three days of missiles flying overhead with a few being shot down near my apartment.
"I was in Saudi Arabia working for the last two years and there was a rocket attack from Yemen while I was there so I think someone is trying to tell me something. I've seen more missiles in the last three days than I did in my seven years in the RAF.”
Mr Barnes is currently staying where he is. He told us: “There are a few flights but a lot of people are going to Aqaba and getting a ferry to Eygpt. My Portuguese and German colleagues were advised by their embassies to leave but the British Embassy here has said nothing apart from don't go to the Syrian border.
"I’m not planning to leave unless it gets a lot worse.”
Mr Barnes, who now lives in Spain, moved to Crawley when he got married to Kerry. He told us Kerry was planning to move over to Jordan but that is now on hold.