Iran's national carrier Iran Air has sent an emergency plane to bring back Iranian nationals from Japan, after the country was hit by a devastating quake and tsunami, Press TV reported.
"Following an earthquake and a tsunami in Japan and upon the request of our fellow compatriots in Japan to return to Iran, Iran Air organized an emergency flight today [Saturday]," a spokesman for the carrier was quoted by IRNA as saying.
More than 6,000 Iranians are estimated to be living in Japan.
The quake and tsunami which struck Japan on March 11 has so far left 7,320 people dead and more than 11,300 more missing. But with many swept away or trapped under the rubble, it is believed that at least 18,690 people have been killed.
The quake has also crippled the cooling systems of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing some radiation leaks.
Japanese engineers, who are struggling to cool down overheating reactors at the Fukushima power plant, have managed to connect an electricity line to one of the reactors and are working to restore power to its cooling system, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.
Experts believe that if Japanese engineers fail to contain the situation, the nuclear catastrophe on the island could be so great in magnitude that it would overshadow Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history.