India is considering options to evacuate an estimated 18,000 of its citizens living in Libya, including a sea route from neighbouring Egypt, diplomatic sources said Wednesday, DPA reported.
An Indian ship was en route to Alexandria and officials were seeking approval from Libyan authorities to move Indians based in Tripoli and Benghazi across the border to Egypt, the sources said.
Indians in Libya were largely concentrated in these two cities, an official said.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the evacuation would be "quite a mammoth operation."
"Arrangements for air and sea evacuation of our nationals from Libya are being finalised," Rao said in a post on Twitter.
The Indian government condemned the use of force on protesters.
"It is earnestly hoped that calm is restored at the earliest without any further violence," a statement said.
The Ministry for External Affairs also denied that an Indian citizen was killed by soldiers on Saturday. It said a contract worker from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu died from injuries he sustained in a car crash as he was trying to cross into Egypt from Tobruk in northeastern Libya.
Most Indian citizens in Libya are contract labourers.