Foreign and Military Affairs

83 Chinese evacuated from Libya, heading home

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-23 23:09

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - A group of 83 Chinese workers were evacuated on Wednesday from Libya to Egypt, and were heading home from the north port city of Alexandria, the Chinese Embassy in Egypt said.

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The first group of 43 left for Beijing by commercial flight at 1:25 pm (1125 GMT) on Wednesday.

The second group of 40 will fly to Shanghai by another commercial flight at around 5:30 pm, the embassy said. All of the evacuated are workers with China Building Technique Group Co Ltd, and had been working in a university construction site 500 kilometers away from Benghazi.

Their compound was ransacked on Feb 19 and 20, and they had to rent 10 minibuses to go the Libyan-Egyptian border. They arrived at the border on Tuesday night, and were received by the Chinese embassy staff and transported to Alexandria on Wednesday morning.

According to statistics released by the Libyan State TV, 300 people including 111 soldiers and 189 civilians have been killed in the unrest which erupted in Libya in the past week.

A construction site run by Huafeng Construction Co, Ltd. from China's Zhejiang province was looted by a group of armed gangsters Sunday afternoon in the eastern city of Agedabia, and nearly 1,000 Chinese workers there were forced out of their living quarters and had become homeless.

The Chinese Embassy in Libya had established contact with all Chinese firms in Libya and was working with relevant departments at home to safeguard national interests and protect the safety and property of Chinese nationals, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a regular news briefing.