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Prisoners running rampant, gunfire in the streets and roads full of tanks have turned Khartoum into a scene from the Purge movie, a student in the capital has said.

Samar Eltayeb, from Birmingham, said there were “murderers” and “thieves everywhere” after prisoners were let out, adding “it was just like” the 2013 horror film about a night when all crime is legal.

The medical student was awoken in her dorm at National University by the sound of gunfire on the day the fighting began.

“It was so terrifying. The sounds kept getting louder and it was as if they were right outside the dorm.”

Two days later, a relative picked her up and drove her to his house on the outskirts of Khartoum.

She said: “As we were driving, the actual main road was closed because there were so many tanks.”

Ms Eltayeb remained indoors for a week while awaiting instruction from the British government, but is now unable to drive to the evacuation airfield outside the city because their cars “have no gas and the petrol stations are empty”.

“There’ll be constant flights within the next few days, but if I can’t find gas to get there, then I’m stuck.”

Referring to her friends who do not have the option to leave, she said: “A lot of people are kind of just doomed. There’s no way they can escape.”