Spain plans to send two military aircraft to evacuate as many as 350 citizens from Lebanon as early as Thursday, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said, Reuters reports.

“The Spanish airplanes are ready, the staff are ready, as always with the professionalism of the Spanish army,” she said in an interview with Antena 3 TV station.

A group of 350 Spanish citizens present in Lebanon have asked to go to Spain, Robles said in the interview.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said earlier this week around 1,000 Spaniards were in Lebanon.