South African government said on Monday it is coordinating an evacuation flight to Thailand's tourist island of Phuket for South Africans stranded by tidal waves.
The Foreign Affairs Department said officials from their department, home affairs department, doctors and paramedics will be on a flight expected to leave on Tuesday.
Two South Africans have been confirmed killed in Phuket island off Thailand, following an earthquake and subsequent tsunamis, or tidal waves that hit Southeast Asia on Sunday.
Two South Africans are still missing in Chennai, India. Two others who were missing in Sri Lanka have been located. At least 300 South Africans are believed to be stranded in Thailand.
A rescue team will fly to Phuket on Tuesday morning to bring back 198 South Africans, said Mande Toubkin, the Netcare 911 spokesperson.
A Boeing 747 plane, on loan from Nationwide airlines, will leave Johannesburg International Airport at 11 am (0900 GMT) Tuesday. "We are sending five doctors, five nurses and two paramedics," Toubkin said.
The tidal waves struck Asian coasts on Sunday as a huge undersea Sumatra earthquake, measuring at 8.7 on the Richter Scale, triggered tsunamis in south and southeast Asia.
At least 22,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia have been killed by the waves.
The magnitude of the disaster has made it difficult for officials to locate the missing people. Additional staff will be sent to the South African embassy in Bangkok to facilitate the operation.