Military sends two planes to evacuate Czechs from Japan

Prague, March 15 (CTK) - The Czech military has sent two special flights with a total capacity of 130 people to Tokyo to bring back Czechs from the earthquake and tsunami-hit Japan, with women and children having priority, Prime Minister Petr Necas and three ministers decided Tuesday.

Necas and the defence, foreign and culture ministers, Alexandr Vondra, Karel Schwarzenberg and Jiri Besser, respectively, decided that the Czech embassy in Japan will say who will board the planes, military staff spokeswoman Jana Ruzickova told CTK.

The Czech Philharmonic (CF) is now on a tour of Japan. According to earlier information Tuesday, the two flights were to collect the orchestra's 106 members.

The planes could only take off at 21:20 after all necessary diplomatic permits were settled. The planes will make stop-overs in Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk, both Russia.

The flight will take about 16 hours and the planes are expected to return on Thursday morning.

The planes are not carrying government aid though Japan asked the European Union for assistance Tuesday, but it is only being coordinated.

Japan mainly asked for financial assistance, but also for drinking water, mattresses, blankets and cans, Ivana Svitakova, spokeswoman for the firefighters' corps, told CTK.

The CF left Tokyo Tuesday and its members are in Kanazawa, west Japan.

The orchestra has cancelled two concerts it was to give in the town and in Nagoya. A total of five concerts were cancelled over the earthquake. The CF was to end its tour on Sunday, March 20, only.

The orchestra wanted to buy new air tickets after the earthquake, but it failed.

The CF left for a traditional tour of Japan on March 6. It had to cancel one concert planned for Friday, March 18, in the port city of Sendai that was seriously hit by the earthquake and the tsunami.

On Saturday, March 19, the CF was to play in Kawasaki, but the roof of the city's concert hall was damaged.