148 Indian Students Stranded In Turkey After Coup Attempt Call For Help

New Delhi: 148 Indian students and 38 officials stranded in Turkey after an attempted coup by sections of military are safe, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.

In a video message sent to Indian TV channels through WhatsApp, the students had said they were in the north-eastern province of Trabzon for the 2016 World Schools Championship that began on July 11 and will end on July 18.

"Our parents called and told us, around three hours ago, that a bomb blast took place in the city of Ankara in Turkey. But there are no problems where we are which is Trabzon," a group of students from Tamil Nadu said in the video message.

''We have to go to Ankara on 18th and then Istanbul to take the flight to Delhi. We appeal to Indian government to help us return safe,'' Tamil Selvi told NDTV over the phone from Trabzon. "As of now, we are safe but we don't have access to TV so we don't know what is happening."

Venkatesh, father of Tamil Selvi, said he is worried as there was uncertainty over whether the event would go on. The students are around 400 km away from the location of unrest. Trabzon is over 700 km far from capital Ankara.

In a tweet to NDTV, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said all students and officials are safe and will start returning in batches from July 18.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared he is in control of the country today as loyal military and police forces quashed a coup attempt during a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire that left over 250 people dead and over 1,000 injured

Mr Erdogan, who flew home early today, said coup supporters "will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey".

The chaos capped a period of political turmoil in Turkey which critics blamed on Mr Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule, which has included a government shake-up, a crackdown on dissidents and opposition media and renewed conflict in the mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast.