A total of 257 Canadian citizens and 285 Australian who were stranded here due to COVID-19 pandemic left Dhaka on Thursday for their respective countries by separate chartered flights.

A chartered aircraft of Qatar Airways left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for Toronto at 9:35 pm tonight onboarding 257 Canadian citizens, a spokesperson of Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) told media.

Besides, he said a total of 285 Australian citizens left HSIA by a chartered flight of Sri Lankan Air at 9:07 pm tonight.

The Sri Lankan Air flight also brought back 30 Bangladeshi nationals, who were stranded in Sri Lanka due to outbreak of coronavirus in its voyage from Colombo to Dhaka, he added.

The Canadian and Australian High Commissions here with the help of Bangladesh government chartered the special flights for those Canadian and Australian citizens, mostly expatriate Bangladeshis, who opted to go back home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesdays a total of 214 stranded Canadian citizens first left the capital Dhaka for Toronto by the first chartered flight of Qatar Airways.

Earlier, citizens of the USA, Japan, Malaysia, Bhutan and different European countries also left here by chartered flights amid outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.