TEHRAN (Press TV) — Iran has sent a plane to retrieve dozens of students confined in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak. A Mahan Airlines flight has flown to Wuhan to bring back 70 Iranian students.

A plane belonging to Mahan Airlines left Tehran with a team of infectious disease doctors and special emergency response medics early Tuesday, adviser to the Iranian health minister Alireza Vahabzadeh told IRNA news agency. There are 70 Iranian students in Wuhan. They will be flown home tomorow and quarantined for 14 days in a special hospital in Tehran, Vahabzadeh said.

On Monday, head of the Affiliation Centre for Disease Control of Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education Mohammad Mehdi Gouya said no Iranian student in Wuhan has been infected with the coronavirus.

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said flights to China had been suspended after several lawmakers complained that Mahan Airlines was continuing to fly to the Asian country. Jafarzadeh said possible flights to China were being conducted in coordination with the ministry of health to transport Iranians residing in China and Chinese residing in Iran.