BEIJING: A total of 449 Chinese nationals were evacuated from conflict-racked Yemen on Monday, state media said, as an Arab coalition continued air strikes against Shiite rebels near Sanaa.

Six nationals from other countries were also rescued, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

On Sunday 122 Chinese citizens were evacuated, China's foreign ministry said.

The Saudi-led coalition has vowed to keep up the raids until the rebels abandon their insurrection against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.

A People's Liberation Army (PLA) naval detachment, which had been carrying out anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, was sent to Yemen on Sunday to allow Chinese nationals to leave the country, China's defence ministry said in a statement.

The flotilla has two guided-missile frigates and a supply ship, the Global Times reported Monday.

The 122 Chinese citizens arrived in Djibouti on Monday and will return home from there, Xinhua said.

Chinese diplomats will "try their best to arrange for the immediate evacuation of other people left in Yemen", said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Previous Chinese media reports quoted Tian Qi, Beijing's ambassador to Sanaa, as saying that there were a total of 590 Chinese citizens in the country.

China in 2011 evacuated more than 35,000 nationals from Libya during the unrest that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Last year it moved more than 730 citizens out of the same country in light of the worsening security.

Several other countries have evacuated their citizens from Yemen over the past few days.

Indonesia is currently sending 90 of its citizens by bus to Al Hudaydah in eastern Yemen, from where they will be flown to Saudi Arabia or Oman, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said.

There are more than 4,000 Indonesians in Yemen, mostly students or workers in the oil and gas sector.

AFP