Hundreds more Britons reached the safety of Cyprus last night after the Royal Navy's sea evacuation stepped up a gear.

The second Royal Navy warship to ferry evacuees from Beirut arrived just before 9.30pm local time (7.30pm UK time).

HMS York, a Type 42 destroyer, docked in Limassol on the south coast of Cyprus, carrying with it 330 passengers.

Earlier, exhausted Britons had spoken of their relief to be heading back to the UK after the destroyer HMS Gloucester arrived in Cyprus yesterday morning carrying a first seaborne wave of 180 evacuees, mainly women and children, from the war-torn region.

A charter flight carrying them back to the UK was due to land at Gatwick airport last night as HMS Gloucester and HMS York, returned to Lebanon to ferry more British citizens to safety.

The Government yesterday launched a large-scale opera-tion to rescue the thousands of Britons still remaining in Lebanon, telling them to make their way to Beirut's port to await evacuation.

Among those disembarking at Cyprus's southern port of Limassol was Elise Mazegi, who made the 11-hour cross-ing with her five-month-old triplets and three-year-old son.

She said: "I'm exhausted but I'm very glad to be out. The trip was long but it was okay - the babies slept most of the time."

She was living with her sister in a Beirut suburb when the Israeli air strikes started overnight on July 12.

"I could hear the shelling, it shook the house. I could see the planes going overhead," she said.

Commander Mike Patterson, captain of HMS Gloucester, said the evacuees were anxious and tired when they embarked but left "fairly buoyant and in high spirits".

British High Commissioner Peter Millet greeted the Britons as they arrived in Cyprus just before 7.20am local time (5.20am BST).

He defended the delay before Britain started evacuating its citizens by sea amid criticisms that France and Italy had responded much more quickly to the Lebanon crisis. Mr Millet said: "This is an effort that has been based on safety and security. We have a duty of care towards our citizens.

"We did not want to rush bringing out British citizens until we knew we could do it safely. We have got far more people in Lebanon than many other countries."

Tony Blair said the events in Lebanon were "tragic and terrible" but declined to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he said: "If it is to stop, it has to stop by undoing how it started, and it started with the kidnap of Israeli soldiers and the bombardment of northern Israel, and if we want this to stop, that has to stop."

There are up to 12,000 British nationals living in Lebanon.

Sixty-three Britons have already been airlifted from Lebanon by helicopter. They were considered to be the most urgent cases, and were either elderly or ill.

Four more Royal Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and the commando assault ship HMS Bulwark, will arrive off the Lebanese coast today.