CAIRO, Feb 21 (Aswat Masriya) – A plane carrying 192 Egyptian passengers landed in Cairo in the early hours of Saturday, on the first flight evacuating Egyptians through an airlift set up to bring Egyptians home from Libya.

The plane took off from the Tunisian Djerba airport. The passengers were Egyptians who managed to cross over from Libya to Tunisia through the Ras Jedir checkpoint on the Libyan-Tunisian borders.

Amid tight security measures surrounding its landing, the plane was taken to a special part of the runway where a security team checked passengers' belongings and travel documents, state-run news agency MENA cited sources at the Ministry of Civil Aviation as saying.   

The plane had departed from Cairo on Friday afternoon and landed in Djerba airport where it picked up the passengers.

Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal had said in a statement on Friday that the number of Egyptians who make the crossing is expected to rise in the coming hours.

Kamal said four planes were designated to work around the clock and can carry up to 2,000 Egyptians. The number of flights will be determined by the number of Egyptians present on the Libyian-Tunisian borders, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry.

The Egyptian community in Libya is estimated to be no less than 500,000, according to Foreign Ministry figures.   

The evacuation of Egyptians from Libya comes after several Egyptian nationals were caught up in the unprecedented violence gripping the neighbouring country.

Twenty Coptic Egyptians abducted in the Libyan city of Sirte on two separate occasions in December and January were beheaded in a video released on February 15.

Egypt launched airstrikes in Libya in the early hours of February 16 in response to the beheadings. 

Egypt's Aviation Ministry announced on the same day that it is waiting for an assessment from the Foreign Ministry on the number of Egyptians residing in Libya to begin evacuating them.

This is the second evacuation of Egyptians from Libya, within the past year. The Aviation Ministry created an emergency airlift with Tunisia last July to transport Egyptians stranded on the Libyan borders with Tunisia back home.

Egyptian authorities issued a ban on any travel to Libya a month ago.