Public hospitals in Tripoli are “overwhelmed” with casualties and people are struggling to live without food, water and electricity, according to a British surgeon who left the Libyan capital and made it to Malta yesterday.

He was one of 46 foreign nationals on board the government-chartered ship Triva I that finally made its way to Malta after a 36-hour sea voyage from Tripoli.

Mark Attard, a Maltese businessman in Libya, was also on board the boat with his family. The family of four, including two children, were the only ones from Malta after other Maltese signalled their intention to stay on in Libya.

Mr Attard said the situation in Tripoli was “difficult” and he was glad to be back in Malta after the rough trip.

The group was evacuated yesterday after a first attempt last week was aborted when the small ship was caught in the crossfire as rebels were still securing the port area.

Mutassim Gaddafi’s former girlfriend, Dutch model Talitha van Zon, was also on board the ship. With her right arm in a cast, the former Playboy model, who regularly visited the Libyan leader’s fifth son in Libya, just walked out of the sea passenger terminal without giving any comments.

Ms van Zon told Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph she was injured after jumping out of a hotel balcony in Tripoli where she was staying. In what she described as “the biggest mistake of my life”, just over a week ago she accepted an invitation to visit Libya as war raged on.

However, when the tide turned she got caught up in a five-star hotel and escaped out of the balcony claiming that rebels who overran Tripoli wanted to burn her. She said her former boyfriend had turned into a ruthless warrior and was nothing like the man she knew before.

The ship was also carrying the four Italian journalists – Elisabetta Rosaspina and Giuseppe Sarcina of Il Corriere della Sera, Domenico Quirico of La Stampa and Claudio Monici of L’Avvenire – who were taken hostage by pro-Gaddafi loyalists last week, as well as three visibly shocked Italians who were imprisoned at the notorious Abu Salim prison in Tripoli.

It remains unclear why the Italians were held in prison and they did not utter a word yesterday after disembarking.

Journalist Mr Monici said: “We’re all fine, we’re all safe. Now we’ll go home, but if there were to be a reason to return to Libya, we would do so. That’s our job as journalists.”

Mr Sarcina said the situation in Tripoli was “so and so” as security remained a major concern.

An Austrian man, who was a manager at Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel, made famous throughout the conflict after serving as a base for foreign journalists, was the first to disembark.

“Malta has never looked so nice,” were his first words. He said he would eventually return to Libya but was grateful for having made it safely out of the embattled Libyan capital.

The ship entered Grand Harbour at around noon after a trip in rough seas, which started on Sunday. The trip was taxing on all the passengers.

One French journalist was evidently exhausted and shocked by events. He said the situation was very chaotic and added he would not be going back for the time being.

He also spoke about his ordeal of being held hostage by Gaddafi loyalists at the Rixos Hotel, along with other foreign journalists, before being freed. “When we were trapped inside the Rixos Hotel we thought we were going to die – we thought we would never make it outside.”

A Romanian midwife said she felt sick because of the situation in Libya but would not rule out returning, even though her initial instinct was to say “no”.

A Serbian architectural designer said he was tired and wanted to go home. “I was in Libya for two years but I don’t think I’ll go back.”

Rolando Seguro, a Cuban journalist for a Venezuelan TV station, described a very complicated situation in a country where there were a lot of civilian casualties.

“The humanitarian crisis is made worse because of lack of food and water coupled with a lack of fuel. The arrival of rebel forces in Tripoli has crystallised this situation, with fierce fighting in various neighbourhoods of Tripoli,” he said.

He added: “Hospitals lack equipment and medical supplies with which to treat the wounded, and a number of people have died simply because of lack of medical attention. It’s a difficult situation for journalists too – we were trapped for five days in our hotel (Rixos), isolated and unable to leave.”

Speaking outside the Valletta terminal after all the passengers had disembarked, Vanessa Frazier, director of defence at the Office of the Prime Minister, said Malta was so far the only EU country which had sought to evacuate its nationals from Tripoli.

She said that when Malta had asked other countries and the EU itself to help with more evacuation trips, no funding had been forthcoming.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com