An Indian was killed in Lebanon, while 602 Indians were airlifted on Friday for home from Larnaca in Cyprus after being evacuated from war-torn Lebanon.
NEW DELHI: An Indian was killed in Lebanon, while 602 Indians were airlifted on Friday for home from Larnaca in Cyprus after being evacuated from war-torn Lebanon.
The Indian, Devesh Kumar Swain, from Orissa, had been missing after Israeli jets bombed a glass factory he was working in, in the eatern Bekaa valley on July 18. Three other Indians who were injured in the bombing, were admitted to hospital. All the four were employees of the glass factory owned by an Indian in Lebanon.
Jitender Bhargava, Executive Director for Air-India's Public Relations, said the 602 evacuees were airlifted by two Air-India aircraft from Larnaca. While one took the evacuees to Chennai, the other headed for Mumbai and after dropping passengers there, will come to Delhi with passengers from Delhi and neighbouring states.
Most passengers (341) are from Tamil Nadu.
The other plane, carrying 261 evacuees, will arrive in Mumbai and later come to Delhi at night.
In addition, seven Nepalis were also evacuated by India from Lebanon following a request by the Nepalese government.
A total of 38 evacuees are from Mumbai and 88 from Delhi and neighbouring states, Bhargava said.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said there were requests for evacuation by 400 Indian nationals till morning.
He, however, could not give the exact number of the requests saying the situation was fast evolving and requests were constantly coming in.
The 602 evacuees were brought by the Indian Embassy staff in Beirut to Beirut port on Thursday from where they were picked up by INS Mumbai and brought to Larnaca.
They were consequently airlifted by two Air-India planes from Larnaca in the afternoon.
On whether India would protest to Israel against the death of the Indian national, Sarna said it was not a diplomatic incident but a bombing incident.
''It is the unfortunate death of an Indian citizen in war.''
Swain was killed in the bombing of a glass factory near the Syrian border on July 19. His body was found on Thursday.
The employers of Swain are in touch with his relatives.
The other three injured are Kalpnath Yadav, Dilip Manna and S K Virdi.
Yadav who had received minor injuries, was evacuated on Thursday and the other are undergoing treatment.
Sarna said it was a very, very difficult situation on the ground in Lebanon where bodies were ''strewn'' all over, communication was difficult and the Indian embassy in Beirut was ''completely besieged with the evacuation process.''
Bhargava said that even though the aircraft were positioned in Larnaca in the early hours, these departed only in the afternoon because of the delayed movement by sea from Beirut to Larnaca.
He said all arrangements had been made for taking the evacuees from Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi to their destinations by Air-India and Indian Airlines flights.
The Civil Aviation Ministry had also made arrangements for medical assistance at Chennai airport.
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