The 46 nurses stuck inside a hospital building in Iraq, while “safe and unharmed” were in an “extremely delicate situation”, said the Ministry of External Affairs here on Tuesday.
The nurses continued to remain confined to the hospital premises in Tikrit — about 140 km northwest of Baghdad — where a fierce battle raged between the ISIS rebels and the Kurdish armed fighters.
“There has been bombing and firing in the vicinity of their building…They have sought refuge in the basement and are in an extremely delicate situation….We have informed the Iraqi authorities of their location and remain hopeful that we will be able to extricate them,” said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
Meanwhile, the government has bought 233 tickets to facilitate the return of Indians outside the conflict zone. “A majority of these 233 are from northern parts of India. Some are from Hyderabad and a limited, very small number from Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” said Mr. Akbaruddin.
He said while about 1000 Indians had expressed a desire to return, a similar number had “elected to stay back for various reasons”.