About 6,700 Canadian citizens have been evacuated from Lebanon as more people are struggling to leave the warn-torn country, Foreign Affairs officials said Sunday.

In an interview Sunday, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay updated the number of Canadian citizens in Lebanon to 40,000, from the original 50,000.

Canada has arranged several ships and more than ten planes to help transport the evacuees from Lebanon back home via Cyprus or Turkey. Travellers have complained that the Canadian government had been too slow to react to the crisis and the evacuation process had been disorganized and exhausting.

MacKay said of particular concern is an estimated 2,000 to 3, 000 Canadians trapped in the south of Lebanon and that efforts were continuing to get them out. He said Canadian government has contacted with the Israeli government on the issue and has managed to pinpoint the locations of many of them.

The violence that erupted between Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants and Israeli army on July 12 has killed at least 375 people in Lebanon, including at least eight Canadians, and 36 people in Israel.

About 600,000 people, mostly in Lebanon, are thought to have fled their homes.

Source: Xinhua