NINETEEN British holidaymakers missing after being caught up in the Chinese earthquake have been found safe and well.
The Foreign Office said 14 members of the group, who were on a visit to the Wolong panda reserve in Wenchuan county, were evacuated to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, by helicopter. The remaining five were also expected to be flown out.
They had been out of touch since the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck on Monday.
The British ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman, said: "Of the group of 19 British tourists that were missing in the Wolong area, 14 have now been evacuated to Chengdu where they are safe and well.
"We understand the remaining five tourists are also safe and we expect them to be evacuated to Chengdu later today."
The daughter of two of the tourists, retired British couple David and Diane Atkins, from Portchester, Hampshire, said she had spoken very briefly on the phone to her mother at 4.20am today. Lisa Staples, 39, from Portsmouth, said: "I spoke to mum. She was in the helicopter and she was just told to say 'I'm safe'. She said she would contact us when they get to their destination. I'm just so relieved that they are OK – it's so amazing."
The full article contains 222 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
