4 stopped, 323 Indians including 7 Maldivians evacuated from Wuhan in Air India's 2nd flight

New Delhi, Feb 02: Air India evacuated 323 more Indians from Wuhan in China in its second special flight, which landed at Delhi airport on Sunday morning. Earlier, a special Air India plane carrying 324 Indians landed in the national capital on Saturday.

Wuhan is the epicenter of outbreak of novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 300 people in China.

An Air India spokesperson said at 9.45 am, "323 passengers were there in the second special flight, which landed at Delhi airport just now."

Air India's jumbo B747 made two flights to Wuhan city - the ground zero of the coronavirus epidemic that has killed 305 people.

"The 2nd #AirIndia flight from #Wuhan has just taken off for #Delhi with 323 Indian citizens on board. 7 Maldives citizens are also being evacuated. Grateful once again to @MFA_China and local authorities all across #Hubei for their assistance," Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri tweeted.

"Want to thank my team at @EOIBeijing which mounted a non-stop almost 96-hour long operation to coordinate a complex airlift under challenging circumstances for us, the passengers and local authorities in #Hubei and #Wuhan," he said in another tweet.

"A special word of appreciation for two of our officers who are on board the plane - Deepak Padmakumar and M Balakrishnan - they showed exemplary fortitude and a real spirit of public service by travelling to ground zero in #Wuhan to coordinate airport arrangements. Kudos to both," he tweeted.

Four Indians could not board the second flight after they reported high temperatures, Misri told PTI.

The first flight left early Saturday with 324 stranded Indians mostly students from Wuhan. Officials said that six Indians could not board the first flight as they were stopped by the Chinese immigration officials after they reported high temperature.

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China's Hubei province.

Officials said they would be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 305 with total confirmed cases surging to 14,380 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, officials said on Saturday.

Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.