Residents fleeing from Sirte in vehicles packed by people and personal belongings

Thousands of residents in Sirte took the opportunity presented them by the National Transitional Council of a 48-hour cease-fire in order for residents wanting to leave Sirte to take up their families, load some of their personal belongings on their vehicles and leave the former Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi's besieged town.

A large queue of vehicles jammed the road leading out of Sirte, one of the last two remaining Al Qathafi bastions. They were packed with possessions and with people, children cramming back seats, elderly relatives lying bewildered in the backs of trucks.

The residents in this city of around 100,000 appeared to be fleeing for dear life. Scores of cars, buses and trucks piled high with household goods lined up at NTC checkpoints on the outskirts of Sirte all Sunday. They left behind other residents who, according to the Red Cross, are dying due to lack of basic medical care.

Most of the fleeing families said the city was running low on food and supplies. There was nothing left in the shops and they had to endure NTC and NATO shelling as well as intimidation from forces loyal to Al Qathafi who are trying to prevent some people from leaving in order to use them as human shields.

The fleeing residents said the situation in the city had deteriorated to such an extent that there was little food and no water or electricity.

After visiting Sirte, the Red Cross said the humanitarian situation has reached crisis proportions with the Ibn Sima hospital, that has also been hit by rockets, lacking medical supplies to treat the wounded.

Some of the vehicles leaving Sirte carried wounded passengers who could not receive medical treatment inside the city. Others wanting to flee could not do so for lack of fuel. There were even medical staff among the fleeing residents, claiming they could not work because of the bombardment

Hichem Khadhraoui of the International Committee of the Red Cross said it's a dire situation. He said that a team that he led had delivered 300 "war wounded kits" and about 150 body bags.

Three weeks into the assault of Al Qathafi's hometown, the situation is so serious and conditions inside were being described as unbearable. Even some of the wounded or ill people cannot get to the hospital because of the fighting and NATO air-strikes.

It is not just anti-Al Qathafi civilians who have been leaving the city. Many are pro-Al Qathafi and they were not afraid to say so. Even some of the NTC fighters examining the vehicles and the people inside them acknowledge the fact. But they are victims too., and they were being helped along to proceed with their voyage.

Revolutionary fighters on the outskirts of Sirte have run an informal public relations campaign, supplying fleeing residents of a city they deeply mistrust with food, fuel and medical supplies. They have to show them that the NTC fighters are not the people Al Qathafi claimed they were.

The NTC forces were helping the fleeing residents even by providing fuel to them. Two petrol tankers parked beside the road leading west from Sirte were distributing around 15 litres of petrol to each car to help them on their way from the city. Hoses were hurriedly pushed into petrol tanks as cars crowded around the petrol tankers at the makeshift refuelling station.

Sirte has been a primary target in the seven-month NATO bombing campaign that helped rebel forces gain control of most of Libya. The intensity of the bombing, coupled with recent rocket attacks by the opposition forces, has turned Sirte into a "living hell," several families said.

With no electricity and only state news stations operating inside the city, families in Sirte had little knowledge of events of the last six months. Many believed that the city of Misurata had been overrun by an odd mix of NATO ground forces and Islamic extremists.

Most of the families who have left Sirte now face another crisis. Most of them have nowhere to go, so they will either have to camp in the open outside of the city or hope that some of their relatives and friends in other cities give them some kind of shelter.

Some of the fleeing families set up home in an abandoned school, crammed 30 people to a room, sleeping on the tile floor.

Most of the Libyans leaving Sirte hope to return soon as the city is captured an they would be able to start a new life, with Al Qathafi. But for now, the area is just a battle zone not safe to be around.

Last week, the transitional council said that the central coastal city and about 5,000 pro-Al Qathafi loyalists inside were surrounded by its forces. On Saturday, the group's chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil gave civilians 48 hours to leave before a full-scale offensive is launched.

Souad Masoudi, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of Red Cross, earlier this weekend claimed that about 10,000 people had fled Sirte. The group described humanitarian conditions inside the besieged city as dire, adding that medical supplies appeared to be in dangerously short supply.

With the exodus picking up, and most of the residents out of the way, NTC fighters hope they can resume their assault and eventually take the town with the help of NATO who continuing to target the area.