Closed shops and restaurants along an almost deserted street in Lukla, the main gateway to the Everest region in Nepal, during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus yesterday.

Foreign governments on Friday stepped up operations to evacuate tens of thousands of their citizens stranded while holidaying in remote locations across South Asia - from Everest base camp to beach hotels in Sri Lanka.

A plane chartered by the German government took 304 people out of Kathmandu in the first of a series of flights aiming to ferry some 10,000 people home from Nepal.

Nepal's government estimates that 10,000 people - from Europe, Australia, South Korea, the United States and India - are in far-flung places across the Himalayan nation, which has halted all international flights.