SPARTA, Greece – The municipality of Spata-Artemida has leased an aircraft to bring back the pupils of Spata High school and their teachers from France. The group was going to return from France by bus, driving across Italy to the port of Ancona and taking a ferry for Patras that also stopped in Bologna.

Responding to the parents and the pupils concerns over the coronavirus, the mayor Dimitis Markou took the initiative to bring back the schoolchildren and their escorts by plane.

The group is expected in Greece on Wednesday, arriving on a direct flight from Nice.

The group, 75 pupils and five teachers-escorts, left on Sunday by air for France but with a five-hour stop in Milan. The first announcement issued by the Italian authorities on certified cases of coronavirus came out while the group was in Milan.

Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the mayor of Spata said: “The municipality is a big family and for us what counts most of all is safety. The municipality is responsible for offering solutions to problems. The parents’ anxiety was great and for us it was our responsibility to immediately assume initiatives”.