The 26 Malaysian tourists stranded in a quake-hit area in southwestern China flew back unhurt early Monday morning.

The group, mostly elderly people, landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, some 70 km south of Kuala Lumpur City, at 00:51 AM on a China Eastern Airline flight MU539 from Shanghai, China.

Officials from the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and kins and friends of these tourists greeted them at the airports.

The group, including a tour guide and a 91-year-old woman, were stranded in Mao County in China's Sichuan Province after a strong earthquake hit there.

They said that they were having lunch at a restaurant in Mao County, some 40 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, when the quake took place on May 12, but they escaped and were evacuated.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)