Special flights evacuate 351 British and Sri Lankan nationals stranded in India

Nearly 250 British nationals and 101 Sri Lankan students who were stranded in India amid COVID-19 lockdown departed from Amritsar International Airport on Thursday.

Earlier on April 21, a relief flight of British Airways had departed from Amritsar with 260 stranded passengers on board. Last week, the British High Commission said that 17 chartered flights will bring back people stranded in India due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

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Special relief flights to rescue foreigners

Special flights from Bengaluru via Ahmedabad to London will be operated on April 23. The flights will also travel from Delhi to London on April 23, 25 and 27. Flights from Goa to London will fly on April 22 and 24 and a flight from Mumbai to London will operate on April 26.

"We are working around the clock to arrange additional flights from locations where we know large numbers are still stranded and are extremely grateful for the support we are receiving from the Government of India and local authorities," said Jan Thompson, Acting High Commissioner to India.

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"101 Sri Lankan Nationals evacuated by a special Sri Lankan airlines flight. The plane landed at Amritsar International Airport this morning and has already taken off for Colombo. All the passengers were students of Lovely Professional University," KBS Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab, tweeted.

The relief flight took off with eight crew members, including two pilots and arrived in Katunayake on Thursday. Two more special flights from Sri Lanka will arrive in India to evacuate 117 Sri Lankans from Coimbatore and 93 from Katmandu.

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The Centre, last month, had announced a suspension of domestic and international flight till May 3 to prevent the surging cases of COVID-19 infection. Due to this, thousands of foreigners stranded across various parts of the country. 

As of date, 16,454 active cases have been reported of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) - 4,257 have been discharged and Maharashtra reported the highest at 5,652. 681 deaths have been reported to date.

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(With inputs from ANI)