CAIRO
An Egyptian official said Thursday that some 1,770 Egyptians had returned from Libya through the western Salloum border crossing within the last 24 hours.
"The number of Egyptians coming back from Libya through the Salloum terminal has increased over the past 24 hours," Al-Anani Hammouda, security chief of Egypt's Matrouh province, told The Anadolu Agency.
Hammouda said the situation at the crossing was "stable," adding that security reinforcements had been deployed in the area.
It was the week's largest influx of Egyptians via Salloum within a single, 24-hour period, based on previous official figures. On Tuesday, authorities said that 555 Egyptians had fled the crisis-hit North African country through the crossing.
Numerous Egyptian expatriates have sought to flee Libya since Monday, when Egypt launched a series of airstrikes targeting suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) sites in Libya's eastern city of Darnah.
The strikes came one day after a video appeared online showing the execution by masked ISIL militants of 21 Egyptian nationals in Libya.
Fractious Libya has remained a source of concern for neighboring Egypt since it descended into violence and chaos following the ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Last month, the Egyptian government – citing the country's precarious security situation – banned citizens from travelling to Libya via Libyan Airlines.
