Overseas Chinese and their families were evacuated from Lebanon by a Greek warship, Chinese embassy in Lebanon says.[Xinhua]

The Greek warship was taking them to Cyprus, where the Chinese embassy would help them arrange their journey home, Liu Xianghua, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon told Xinhua.

The evacuees were seen off the Beirut port by officials from the Chinese embassy in Lebanon.

Since last Saturday, the embassy had helped 143 overseas Chinese evacuate from Lebanon, said the ambassador.

Governments around the world have been scrambling to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon as the intense Israeli military offensive entered its eighth day on Wednesday in the worst fighting across the border in more than two decades.

The United States evacuated some 1,000 citizens from Lebanon on Tuesday, and 180 Britons took warships to leave lebanon on Wednesday.

Russia said it had sent two planes to Syria on Wednesday to pick up some 270 Russians who had fled to Syria by bus, and Canada said that it would send a ship to Lebanon to take its citizens home.