Dozens of Indian nurses stranded in territory held by Islamic extremists in Iraq returned home to southern India yesterday aboard a special flight.

The 46 nurses had been stranded for more than a week in Tikrit, where fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group have taken over.

The nurses had been moved to a new area under the group's control, and finally crossed on Friday into Irbil in Kurdish territory. The plane landed in Kochi, in Kerala state, where the nurses are from. The Indian government gave no details of how their freedom was secured.