IAF relief flight evacuates Indians, foreigners from virus-hit Wuhan

An IAF C17 transport aircraft evacuated a group of 112 Indians and foreign nationals from the coronavirus outbreak epicentre, Wuhan, early on Thursday ending a week-long wait for their anxious families back home and putting a close to a terse exchange between New Delhi and Beijing over delaying this flight.

Besides the Indians, the US-made IAF relief aircraft also evacuated more than dozen nationals from four countries – Bangladesh, South Africa, Madagascar and Maldives.

The majority among the foreigners were Bangladeshi students.

A group of OCI card-holding Chinese citizens were also on the flight.