Australia and New Zealand send planes to evacuate stranded tourists in New Caledonia

Australia and New Zealand announced that they will send three planes to New Caledonia in the South Pacific on Tuesday to evacuate hundreds of their tourists who have been stranded in hotels since the unrest broke out in the French territory about a week ago.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country would send a plane immediately after receiving long-awaited landing permission from French authorities.

Peters added that the first New Zealand plane would bring back "50 passengers with the most urgent needs" to Auckland, noting that it would be the "first in a series of proposed flights to start repatriating New Zealanders to their homeland."

Shortly thereafter, his Australian counterpart Penny Wong announced that her country had also received permission for two planes to land.

Estimates indicate that more than three thousand people, mostly Australians, and New Zealanders, are stranded in hotels suffering from a shortage of supplies due to the ongoing unrest for a week, which has led to the closure of the international airport in the archipelago.

AFP