India Carries Out Third And Largest Evacuation From Iran Amid COVID-19 Outbreak, Brings Back 234 Indians

In a major development, as many as 234 Indian nationals who were stranded in the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)-hit Iran have arrived in India on board Mahan Air flight, reports Asian News International (ANI).

The positive development was made public in the wee hours of Sunday (15 March) by Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar. He also shared that out of the 234 who have arrived, 131 are students while the rest were pilgrims.

This marks the third and largest evacuation of Indian nationals from Iran carried out by Indian authorities in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. 58 and 44 Indian nationals were evacuated prior to this from Iran last week on Tuesday and Friday respectively.

Jaishankar expressed gratitude to Iranian authorities, Indian Ambassador to Iran Dhamu Gaddam, and the officials from the Indian Embassy in Iran for making the swift evacuation of Indian nationals possible.

It should be noted that Iran is one of the worst-ht nations with more than 12,729 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and over 611 deaths so far.