Second evacuation flight of German, European tourists stranded in India to take off tonight

The second evacuation flight for 500 German and European tourists stranded in India due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown will take off from Delhi on Thursday night.

Walter J. Lindner, German Ambassador to India tweeted, "Getting ready for our second evacuation flight from Delhi to Frankfurt tonight. Again an A380 with 500 stranded tourists from Germany and Europe. Individual characters for sure - distance yoga to fill waiting time ..."

The German Foreign Office also tweeted the update, "We're going home! Over 500 stranded tourists in Flag of India looked forward to their return flight to Flag of Germany. @germanyinindia opened the embassy garden for the last hours they had to wait. A spot of relaxation prior to their departure. Thank you @AmbLindnerIndia & the @GermanyinIndia team!"

The German envoy earlier tweeted that a first evacuation flight carrying over 500 people left last night.

"Today's update on our repatriation efforts. First evacuation flight (A380) with 500+ people left last night. Second one to be airborne tonight. Thanks also to the Indian authorities for great cooperation!" Lindner said.

A three-week countrywide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, which came into effect from midnight in a bid to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19.

Meanwhile, a total of 649 positive cases of coronavirus havee been reported in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.