More than 1,200 Chinese workers who had been trapped in the embattled northern Iraqi city of Samarra have been evacuated to Baghdad, according to Chinese state media.

The official Xinhua news agency says the Chinese arrived safely at a Baghdad hotel, with the Iraqi military providing security.

The report said that China Machinery Engineering Corporation employed the workers at a power plant construction site in Samarra, near where security forces are battling militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The report didn't specify who evacuated the workers but said 45 were transported by helicopter on Wednesday, with the rest arriving in two separate groups by bus over the next two days. More than 10,000 Chinese are in Iraq, many of them employees with Chinese firms.

(From news reports)