Iraq frees 46 Indian nurses trapped in Tikrit

Forty six Indian nurses, who were trapped in fighting engulfing parts of Iraq, have been freed, Indian authorities say.

The nurses have been handed over to Indian officials in the Kurdish city of Irbil and are due to be flown home on Saturday.

The nurses were working at a hospital in the northern city of Tikrit and had been stranded there for more than week.

Tikrit is among a number of towns and cities seized by jihadist-led Sunni rebels in recent weeks.

“All the 46 nurses in Iraq are safe,” chief minister of the southern Indian state of Kerala Oommen Chandy told a news conference on Friday, adding that they were to be transferred to Irbil airport.

The nurses, all from Kerala, are due to arrive in the southern city of Kochi on Saturday morning.

On Thursday, Indian officials said the nurses were “unharmed”, but had been moved out of Tikrit.

Indian media reports said they had been pressured into boarding buses and leaving the hospital by jihadist fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

There are few details about the exact circumstances of their release.