FAHAD SAAD was among the hordes of foreign tourists clamouring to escape from Lebanon across the Syrian border yesterday.

The investment banker from Qatar and his family had been looking forward to his annual two-month break in the mountains outside Beirut. Instead they had fled in a five-vehicle convoy after barely a week in Lebanon.

“The children didn’t sleep all night as we could hear the bombing," said Mr Saad.

A senior Syrian customs official told The Times that 16,000 foreign tourists had crossed the border on Thursday. They continued to pour across yesterday despite Israel’s bombing of the Beirut to Damascus highway, taking a much longer mountain road instead.

“We have a staff of 80 working at this border 24 hours a day at the moment,” the official said. “Normally, we only have two people working after midnight but everyone is now sleeping here since the traffic has tripled. We have directives from the Syrian Government to facilitate every nationality that comes through. They are welcome in Syria.”

Every hotel room in Damascus was full last night. Arab airlines were providing extra flights to take the stranded tourists home.

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