An airplane carrying 83 British and 27 foreign nationals yesterday flew out from China’s central city of Wuhan, the center of a virus epidemic that has killed more than 200 people and infected more than 9,000, the British government said.
The civilian aircraft chartered by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office left Wuhan at 9:45am, the government said in a notice on its Web site.
It was scheduled to arrive in Britain at 1pm yesterday, before continuing on to Spain, where the home countries of EU citizens would take responsibility for the remaining passengers.
“We know how distressing the situation has been for those waiting to leave,” British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab said in the notice.
“We have been working round the clock to clear the way for a safe departure,” he added.
The flight had been expected to depart Wuhan on Thursday morning with about 150 British citizens and 50 non-British nationals, but its departure was blocked by Chinese officials.
The reasons for the delay and the fewer-than-expected passengers were not immediately clear.
The British embassy in Beijing and the office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some British citizens have reportedly said they were told that they could not take family members with Chinese passports out of the city.
Those returning to Britain are to be quarantined for 14 days at a British National Health Service facility.
A British government spokesman said that any citizens who were eligible for the flight would be given a seat, but nationals already infected would not be allowed to leave Wuhan.
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