Viral: Heart-wrenching photo shows over 600 Afghans crammed inside US Military Plane

New Delhi, Aug 17: In a bid to escape the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, social media is flooded with heart-wrenching pictures and videos depicting the sad state of the Afghans who are desperate to leave the war-torn country since the Taliban took control of the presidential palace Arg in Kabul.

A recent image that has emerged shows a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III safely evacuated some 640 Afghans including women and children from Kabul to Qatar late Sunday.

That's believed to be among the most people ever flown in the C-17, a massive military cargo plane that has been operated by the U.S. and its allies for nearly three decades.

Speaking to US defense and security news site Defense One, an official said that the aircraft was not intended to take on such a large load, but panicked Afghans who had been cleared to evacuate pulled themselves onto the C-17's half-open ramp.

"Instead of trying to force those refugees off the aircraft, the crew made the decision to go. Approximately 640 Afghan civilians disembarked the aircraft when it arrived at its destination," the defense official told the portal.

Meanwhile, 10 people were killed and several were injured at Kabul airport in the last two days as thousands tried to catch flights in an attempt to flee the country soon after the Taliban captured Kabul, local media reported.

C-17s can move far more people than their official capacity during an emergency, as was the case after a Typhoon hit the Philippines in 2013.