'Contingency plans' ready for evacuees

Emergency plans to airlift Britons out of India and Pakistan if the nuclear neighbours go to war are being drawn up by the Foreign Office.

The bulk of the operation, which could involve up to 20,000 UK nationals, is likely to be handled by British Airways, although other carriers serving south Asia could also be called in to help.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We have contingency plans; we are of course in touch with airlines, it would be remiss of us not to be, but we are not evacuating nationals at this stage."

The moves emerged after Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, urged British passport-holders to consider leaving India as the build-up of military forces continued on either side of the border in Kashmir.

Similar advice went out to the several thousand UK nationals in Pakistan last month, where numbers of diplomatic staff have been halved.

By last night, 24 non-essential High Commission staff had flown back from India as a result of Mr Straw's warning. Several hundred other Britons are also understood to have returned home.

An estimated 20,000 are in India, with another 1,000 believed to be holidaying in the subcontinent. Some tour operators have been offering holidaymakers the option of coming home early, orgiving refunds or alternative destinations to people due to go soon. Some 250,000 Britons holiday in India each year.

Multinational firms, including Rolls-Royce, Unilever and BG, formerly British Gas, are also arranging for non-essential British workers to leave India and are monitoring the situation in case other staff have to be evacuated.

BA said it had not noticed a rush to buy tickets out of India and was operating normal services.

But it confirmed it had been in close contact with the Foreign Office and was working on contingency plan should the situation deteriorate.