Two students from Washington University were at an airport in Cairo, Egypt, late Sunday waiting for a flight to Athens, Greece, to escape the violent protests that have erupted in Egypt, said a university official.
The undergraduate students, who were not identified, had been studying in Egypt. They were safe, and flights out of Egypt were leaving regularly to European cities, said Mark Beirn, the associate director for overseas programs at Washington University.
Even so, Beirn said, hundreds of Americans were waiting to leave Egypt, and there were lengthy delays at airports in Cairo and Alexandria. He said he hoped the two students, with whom he has been in contact, could fly to Athens by late today.
Beirn said the students were in good spirits and said he believed that they would be able to safely leave Egypt. “The focus of the protest there has not been at American citizens,” he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo has been advising American citizens in Egypt to remain calm.
One of the Washington University students had been studying at Middlebury College in Alexandria. The other had been studying in Cairo through America-Mideast Educational and Training Services.
Beirn said he had been in frequent contact with the students’ families.
