India offered Pakistan, other neighbouring nations to bring back citizens from Wuhan

New Delhi : India had offered to bring back people of neighbourhood countries from the coronavirus epicenter Wuhan during its drive to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in the China's city, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Seven Maldives officials chose the offer and were carried back via Air India plane.

"At the time when two flights were going, we had told all the students and the larger community in Wuhan that we were not only prepared to bring back our own people, but all the people in our neighbourhood who would like to return," Jaishankar said.

"But I would like the honourable members to know that the offer was made to everybody," he informed Rajya Sabha in response to queries if Pakistan had requested India to bring back its citizens.

He also informed that nearly 80 Indian students are still in Wuhan as they chose to stay back. 10 of them were not allowed to board the flight as they were having high fever during the boarding time.

He said that about 70-odd people chose to voluntarily stay in Wuhan and not get evacuated by the two flights.

Wuhan in China is the epicentre of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The deadly virus has fast spread in China, infecting more than 30,000 people.