In one of its largest-ever withdrawal efforts of nationals from abroad, China has been working hard to evacuate its tens of thousands of nationals from riot-torn Libya in the past few days.

Chinese workers arrive at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2011. The first group of 43 Chinese evacuated from riot-torn Libya arrived in Beijing Thursday morning on a flight from Egypt's northern city of Alexandria. [Ma Ruzhuang/Xinhua]

Some 12,000 Chinese nationals have so far been evacuated from the north African country, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao said early Friday morning.

Song told reporters about the latest figure at the Beijing International Airport shortly after welcoming back 224 Chinese flying home by taking the first chartered plane sent by the Chinese government to evacuate its nationals from Libya, which arrived at the airport at 2:15 a.m.Friday (GMT 1815 Thursday).

The Air China CA060 flight, which flew Wednesday to this north African country thrown into chaos by anti-government uprisings and protests, left Libya's capital Tripoli Thursday afternoon.

So far, the Chinese government has sent two chartered planes to evacuate its nationals from Libya, carrying task groups and emergency relief materials.

The second chartered plane has also departed Egypt's Cairo, taking another batch of Chinese back home. The plane is expected to arrive in Beijing at 9:00 a.m. Friday local time (GMT 0100).

In the past few days, the Chinese nationals in Libya, mostly employees of Chinese companies with businesses in Libya, had been evacuated to neighboring countries including Greece, Egypt and Tunisia by ocean liners, airplanes or coaches, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The evacuated Chinese on board the first chartered plane are mainly engineers and technicians working in Libya and their family members.

They said they were frightened but now feel safe after coming back home.