A group of 48 Chinese nationals who had been trapped in quake-hit Haiti left for home on Monday aboard a special flight arranged by the Chinese government.

The plane, carrying the Chinese and members of the Chinese rescue team who finished their operations here, took off Monday afternoon from the airport of Port-au-Prince and is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday.

The stranded Chinese are mostly from south China's Fujian Province.

After the 7.3-magnitude quake that has so far killed 150,000 people in the Caribbean country, they were settled properly with the help of the Chinese business representative's office in Haiti, and Chinese peacekeepers here also provided them with food and water, one of the Chinese told Xinhua at the airport.

Eight Chinese peacekeeping police officers were killed in the earthquake.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2010)