"We saw missiles in the sky and heard bombs in our neighbourhood... We were petrified," said MBBS student Mir Khalif, his voice still trembling with fear, as he stepped out of Delhi airport. He was evacuated from war-hit Iran under Inda's Operation Sindhu, news agency PTI reported.

Khalif arrived in the national capital early on Thursday on the first evacuation flight, which brought 110 Indian students back as part of a special operation launched by the Indian government in response to the escalating Iran-Israel war.

The students, including 90 from Jammu and Kashmir, had been moved from Tehran to Armenia earlier in the week as explosions and aerial attacks rocked Iranian cities. The Indian Embassy coordinated their rescue.