A SECOND evacuation flight rescuing UK nationals from war-torn Sudan has landed in Cyprus.
The passengers and a further 39 from an earlier rescue flight on Tuesday are expected to be given the chance to fly to the UK from Larnaca Airport later.
British troops are attempting to get UK nationals out of the east African country during a 72-hour ceasefire.
The BBC was told 39 people were flown out on the first RAF plane – and three rescue flights are planned in total.
Trapped British nationals had been told to make their own way to an airstrip near Sudanese capital Khartoum, once it was clear the ceasefire that began at midnight local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday was holding.
An RAF military plane is being used to pick up British passport holders from the airstrip and fly them to Lanarca Airport where their documentation is checked. The RAF plane then refuels, before returning to Sudan to pick up the next batch waiting at the airstrip.
A total of 260 people has been expected on the flights but the Foreign Office has yet to confirm how many people made it on to the second plane, which arrived at Larnaca in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Foreign Office have said its aim is that the evacuees will only be in Cyprus for less than 48 hours before they can take up the option of flying to the UK.
It is thought there is only a small window of relative safety for this evacuation effort to exploit.
Among the first group of evacuees to arrive in Cyprus were families with young children, some of them newborns, who were greeted by the Cypriot Red Cross which provided food and toiletries.
They have spent the night in Larnaca and will travel to London on a charter flight set to depart in the morning.
