Thiruvananthapuram: The 46 Kerala nurses stranded in Iraq's Tikrit town are spending their time in a basement of a building within the hospital campus where they worked, according to a source.

One can easily make out from sounds in the background and around them that they live in a basement in constant fear. They do not know whether the rebels or the government controls their city, a person who did not wish to be identified and in touch with the nurses told IANS.