Tankers were told to leave the port of Tripoli and an LPG carrier had a narrow escape after the terminal was shelled by forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) on Tuesday.

Shipping operations came to a halt just as United Nations-brokered talks on the country’s 10-month civil conflict were resuming.

Tankers and LPG carriers were being evacuated before they had unloaded, according to an official at state-run National Oil Corp (NOC).