They trekked in, but they couldn’t trek out.

Scores of tourists stranded in the foothills of Mount Everest had to be flown to safety Saturday after a nationwide coronavirus lockdown by Nepal kept them from coming down on their own.

There are 174 foreign tourists and four Nepali nationals left the mountain by air in 12 small planes and two helicopters, Dhurba Shrestha, an official at the Tenzing Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal, told The Associated Press.

The tourists were stranded at the only airstrip serving the world’s highest mountain, after arriving in the country to hike in the region. The airport at Lukla, located at an altitude of 9,184 feet, is the only airport in the region.

Nepal closed all of its Himalayan peaks, including Mount Everest, for the climbing season on March 13, two days after Chinese officials closed access to the world’s highest mountain from the Tibetan side.

Foreign embassies had urged Nepal’s government to allow the rescue flights since the country imposed a lockdown last week.

The rescues from the Everest region came after several flights chartered by the German and French governments carried hundreds of other tourists stranded in the country. Two Qatar Airways jets flew 303 Germans and 305 French nationals out of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, The New York Times reported.  On Friday, another flight rescued 305 German tourists.

Up to 10,000 tourists are believed to be stranded in Nepal after the government ordered a complete lockdown that halted all flights and road travel to prevent the spread of the virus, the country’s tourism board told the AP.

Nepal has five confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, including one person who has recovered.