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MUMBAI: Another 280 Indians stranded in strife-torn Egypt reached here early Tuesday on a special flight.

The Air India flight - AI-800 - carrying the Indians landed here at 2.30 am., an official said.

This is the second flight to Mumbai in Air India's efforts to bring back the Indians stuck in different Egyptian cities.

Earlier, a planeload of 320 harried Indians were evacuated from the Egyptian capital on Monday and flown to Mumbai.

Soon after the Air India special Boeing-737 landed in Mumbai, vacationers, business travelers and even NRIs settled in Egypt poured out to meet anxious friends and relatives and share stories of horror from the last week.

``The fear spread once violence began. There was the army on the streets. People in buildings had also come out with baseball bats. News of looting spread but there was no police to be seen,`` said Duhita Samaiyar, a designer and social worker settled in Cairo for seven years.

``Ours is a peaceful neighbourhood. However, since Friday, there were a lot of people taking to the streets. We could hear gunshots from our house and our family in Mumbai advised us to come and stay here until the situation improved,`` said Duhita, who travelled back with her two daughters.

Many who were there to receive the evacuees said the last three days were the most anxious ones of their lives as communications with stranded relatives were snapped with authorities briefly blocking net access and mobile phones. Since most were tracking events on television, the relief of seeing loved ones safe was hard to contain with much hugging and weeping seen at the arrival terminal.

Sangeeta Desai was standing on her toes to see if her husband had come out of the arrival gate. Ashish Desai was in Cairo for the past nonth on business.

"I spent a very tense time here. For two days, I could not reach him as no mobile or internet connection was available. Even after that, I would keep calling but the phone kept getting cut every minute," she said before bolting to receive her husband, the first to walk out of the arrival gate.

"Even after I reached the airport, I didn`t know if I would make it to India. There was utter chaos. Lots of people had gathered at the airport and were trying to find a way out,`` said the Mumbai-based businessman who spent a night at Cairo airport.

The 320 passengers who came in on Monday were lucky to have made it as many others were stuck and struggling to get a ticket back. Abhishek Jhawar, a 23-year-old flying from Lagos to Mumbai via Cairo, was among them. ``He reached Cairo on January 29, but has been confined to the airport since then," said his brother Avinash. He said his brother wasn`t allowed to transfer to another terminal because he didn`t have an Egypt visa.