Paris: France was working today to repatriate up to 150 Europeans caught up in the terror attacks in Mumbai.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said a special flight carrying three doctors and consular reinforcements to help people who may have lost ID papers in the attacks arrived in the Indian city today and could fly back later in the day.
France s Foreign Ministry said Spain and Germany asked that the flight bring back their nationals, and that a group of European lawmakers asked to board it, too. The plane has space for 150 people, and will be met back in France by Red Cross personnel, the ministry said.
France was "still awaiting information about a small number" of French people known to have been among about 25 French citizens in three hotels at the heart of the attacks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said today.
He said an Air France crew of 15 that had been trapped in one hotel has been freed, and that about 10 others had also reached safety. He did not elaborate on where they had been or how they got free.
The French people "were in very close proximity to" the terrorists, Chevallier said. "It was psychologically violent, it was clearly difficult. The trauma is clearly there."
