A YORKSHIRE survivor of riot-torn Libya has described how he dodged snipers as he tried to flee the country.

Father-of-two Don Goodwin made three desperate attempts to escape a remote desert camp before finally catching a plane to safety as chaos and killings engulfed the North African state.

He was reunited with his wife, Rosie Pressland, at their Pocklington home yesterday, where he learned his 91-year-old mother had undergone an urgent operation.

Mr Goodwin said: “They got me a seat on a plane to Gatwick on Wednesday. I was ecstatic and my family passed the message to everybody that I was coming home.”

However, the escalating violence meant Don had to abandon travelling to the airport. He was told by his boss to “lie low and not go out at all”, although he was then included within the camp’s evacuation plans and told to be ready for another flight.

“We had to abandon our vehicles and walk half a mile to the airport,” he said. “There was an ominous background noise, quite frightening and disturbing. Shots were fired, and when the shooting occurred, we were directly in line with the crowds.

“We ran to the shelter of trees and out of harm’s way. I was shaking with the cold or the fear, or perhaps both.”

Don said he “jumped at the chance” when he was told seats were available on a flight to Warsaw, but there were still obstacles to overcome.

Troops and airport police baton-charged crowds trying to get through immigration control and the bus driver ferrying his group to their flight could not locate the plane.

“When we were allowed on to the plane, the time was just before midnight, and when it took off everybody was clapping. What a relief,” he said. Once in Warsaw he was able to get a flight to Manchester via Paris.

In a twist of fate, the couple’s Chilean future son-in-law, Eric Godoy, was originally meant to be working at another Libyan construction camp, but was on a skiing holiday when the country exploded in violence. He is now in Pocklington trying to co-ordinate the rescue of 200 friends and colleagues still stranded in the desert.

The White House says the US is moving forward with plans to impose sanctions on Libya in response to the violence there.

President Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney says the US was finalising the process and that the US was working with European partners on additional sanctions. The announcement today came as hundreds of Americans were evacuated. Militias loyal to Colonel Gadhafi have been firing on protesters demanding the Libyan leader's oustin. Mr Carney said President Obama will meet the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Washington on Monday to discuss the situation.

•HMS York, initially on her way to the Falklands, is being held on stand-by in Gibraltar to be deployed off Libya if necessary