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A Government spokesman said as at 12 noon today (January 3), the Immigration Department's hotline (2829 3010) had received 877 enquiries and 1186 requests for assistance.

Meanwhile, there remained 74 cases in which the callers were able to provide the personal particulars of the residents concerned as well as some information about their last known locations. Amongst them, 42 were reported to be in Thailand, two in Malaysia, 11 in Indonesia and 19 in other places. There were no reported cases involving Hong Kong residents in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

In addition, there also remained 870 Hong Kong residents whose family members have not provided the personal particulars or specific information on the last known locations of these residents. The Immigration Department is liaising with the caller in each of these cases to gather the required information for immediate follow-up actions.

As regards casualties involving Hong Kong residents, the Government has received two new reports on death tolls in Thailand involving a man and a baby boy. Once verified, this will bring the total death toll from six to eight. Meanwhile, three people including a girl, a man and a woman are still hospitalized in Thailand.

The spokesman reminded employers and school heads to report to the Immigration Department hotline (2829 3010) if their employees or students failed to turn up to work or classes.

From calls made by employers today, six employees were reported to have lost contact with their employers after the Christmas and New Year holidays. The facts in these cases were being verified for follow-up actions as soon as possible.

On the multi-disciplinary support team from the HKSAR Government, the spokesman said that in addition to their presence in six major hospitals in Phuket, police officers had been dispatched to a resort hotel in Phang Nga today to locate Hong Kong residents.

Following the announcement of the Thai authorities to set up a DNA database to help verify the identity of victims in the disaster, the Hong Kong Police have contacted relatives of unlocated Hong Kong people for the collection of DNA samples on a voluntary basis. Relevant DNA information will be sent to the Thai authorities for identification purpose.

As part of the procedure, oral swap and hair samples will be taken at Central Police Station at Arsenal Street, Wan Chai.

As at 4 pm today, Police have obtained consent from 10 families and taken DNA samples from seven of them.

Four other families had earlier provided their DNA samples to the HK authorities in Thailand.

The spokesman reiterated that there was no need for Hong Kong residents to travel to Thailand solely for the purpose of giving their DNA samples to the Thai authorities.

The support team is now operating three round-the-clock telephone hotlines for Hong Kong residents in Thailand to call for assistance. Three help desks at Bangkok Airport, Phuket Airport and the coordination centre in Phuket are also operating 24 hours to provide necessary assistance.

The three telephone hotlines are: 096471215 and 096471208 (for calling from Thailand) or Hong Kong number (852) 9038 6578.

Local Hong Kong residents are urged to call the Immigration Department's hotline (2829 3010) for assistance.

A dedicated web page containing information on the tsunamis incident can be accessed through a hyperlink at the Government's homepage (www.info.gov.hk) or the Immigration Department's homepage (www.immd.gov.hk).

The web page provides with the consent of families concerned information on the personal particulars of Hong Kong residents reported to have lost contact with their families.

The public are advised to beware of possible fraud e-mail messages soliciting donations into a bank account in Cyprus to help South Asian people affected by the tsunamis.

Police are looking into the case. Those who have received such or similar email messages are requested to call the Police hotline at 2860 5012.

Ends/Monday, January 3, 2005

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