Some 2,000 civilian vehicles have left the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on a so-called humanitarian corridor, the city council says.

The city council said another 2,000 cars were waiting to leave along the evacuation route, which runs west for more than 160 miles to the Ukraine-held city of Zaporizhzhia.

City officials advised drivers to spend the night along the route unless they were close to Zaporizhzhia by evening.

Mariupol had a population of 430,000 before the war.

The strategically located city has been under fire for more than two weeks.

Officials estimate the siege has killed more than 2,300 people and said it had left residents desperate for food, water, heat and medicine.

It was not immediately clear if the number of departed cars given on Tuesday included 160 vehicles that left the day before.

The city council said nearly 300 people had arrived in Zaporizhzhia as of Tuesday.