Scramble to beat India restrictions

HUGE queues built up at Heathrow as passengers from India rushed to beat the UK’s red-list deadline.

There were reports of people paying up to five times the usual ticket price and flying over war zones in private planes to arrive before the 4am cut off.

British or Irish citizens, or those with residence rights, who landed after that time yesterday must now spend £1,750 to stay in quarantine hotels for 10 days.

Every additional adult or child over 12 must pay £650 or £325 for children aged five to 12.

Arrivals from India without residence rights are turned away.

Those who flew in in time told the BBC they felt “so relieved”.

India is recording a global record of 315,000 cases a day as a variant ravages the country.

At least 2,074 deaths were reported one day last week but experts fear the true figure is 10 times higher.

The last chartered flight from India landed at Heathrow at 7pm on Thursday with people paying up to £2,000 for a £400 ticket.

Others hired £7,000-an-hour private jets for the 12-hour, 6,000-mile trip, to get to the UK.

One chartered from Mumbai to Luton flew over war-torn Iraq, a route usually shunned by pilots.

The new restriction is in response to mounting concern about the situation in India.

The variant – B.1.617 – was first noted in October and identified in the UK in February.

Public Health England recorded 55 cases in the week to April 14. Boris Johnson has had to cancel a visit to India on Monday.