Hyderabad, May 7 (IANS): Thirty-two citizens of Kenya stranded in Hyderabad due to the lockdown were airlifted on Thursday, officials said.

A special passenger relief flight of Indigo Airlines evacuated the Kenyan citizens to Mumbai, from where they will leave for their destination by a flight of Kenyan Airways.

The IndiGo flight arrived here from Chennai via Bengaluru. It landed at Hyderabad International Airport 9.20 a.m. and departed for Mumbai at 11.02 a.m. with 83 Kenyan nationals, out of which 32 passengers boarded at Hyderabad and 51 transit passengers who had joined from Chennai and Bengaluru.

Hyderabad Airport officials said all these passengers were serviced through a fully-sanitised Domestic Terminal which has been kept ready for evacuation operations.

In coordination with the Kenyan consulate, Hyderabad and the Telangana government, the Kenyan citizens reached the airport from various parts of Hyderabad.

Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flight's handling as part of Covid 19 precautionary steps that included thermal screening, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.

With this, GMR Hyderabad International Airport has handled 12 evacuation flights serving over 900 foreign nationals who were repatriated by various special relief flights from Hyderabad to the UK, the UAE, the US, Kenya and Germany.