"Bombs woke me up": Panic is spreading massively, people are hiding in schools VIDEO

They flee in cars, trucks, motorbikes, and some have even received warning messages on their mobile devices from the Israeli army.

Intense air raids

Zahra Sawli, a student from the southern city of Nabatieh, told the BBC that the bombing was intense.

"I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of bombs. By noon, it became very intense and I saw a lot of strikes in my area," Sawli said. She added that she heard a lot of glass shattering.

Shelters in schools

By Monday evening the Lebanese health ministry reported that 492 people had been killed and more than 1,600 injured in the bombardment. It said at least 35 children were among those killed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out 1,100 strikes over the previous 24 hours, including an air strike in southern Beirut that the IDF said had targeted a senior Hezbollah commander. 

In Beirut too there was widespread anxiety. As people from the south arrived in the capital in cars with suitcases strapped to the top, some of the city's residents were themselves leaving. Israel has warned people to evacuate areas where it says Hezbollah is storing weapons - but it also sent recorded warnings to people in Beirut districts not considered Hezbollah strongholds including Hamra, an area home to government ministries, banks and universities.

Schools have been hastily converted into shelters for the streams of evacuees coming from the south. On a government order, schools in Beirut and Tripoli as well as eastern Lebanon were established as shelters.

Meanwhile Lebanon’s hospitals were also ordered to cancel all non-elective surgeries on Monday as physicians braced for a wave of casualties and injuries.

Despite the tense and uncertain atmosphere in Beirut, some people were defiant.

"If a total war happens, we should stand as Lebanese people together regardless of our political affiliations because at the end of the day, our country is getting bombed," one man told the BBC.

Others were simply resigned to the violence.

"If they want war, what can we do? It was imposed on us. We cannot do anything," shop owner Mohammed Sibai told Reuters.

By the middle of the day, roads north towards Beirut were clogged with traffic, with vehicles heading towards the capital while other images showed people walking along the beach in the southern city of Tyre as smoke rose from air strikes in the countryside inland.