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A Government spokesman said that at noon today (January 7), the Immigration Department's tsunami hotline (2829 3010) had received 877 enquiries and 1,375 requests for assistance.

Meanwhile, there remained 58 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. Among them, 33 were reported to be in Thailand, nine in Indonesia, one in Malaysia, and 15 in other places. There were no reported cases involving Hong Kong residents in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

In addition, there remained 153 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 action.

As regards casualties involving Hong Kong residents, the Government received a new report on the death toll involving a woman in Thailand. Once the facts are verified, this would bring the total fatalities to 10. As of today, a woman and a girl are still hospitalised in Thailand.

On the multi-disciplinary support team from the HKSAR Government, the spokesman noted that in view of a decreased demand for services required of the support team, the deployment of Hong Kong's support team in Thailand would continue to be adjusted, although all essential services would continue.

The help desks set up in Phuket and Bangkok International Airport are operating at busy hours only. The multi-disciplinary support team would also maintain its presence in hospitals where Hong Kong residents are staying.

Three telephone hotlines will continue to operate round the clock to provide assistance to Hong Kong residents. They are: 096471215 and 096471208 (calling from Thailand) or Hong Kong number (852) 9038 6578.

Local Hong Kong residents are urged to call the Immigration Department's hotline at 2829 3010, if necessary.

On the DNA database set up by the Thai authorities to help verify the identity of victims in the disaster, the spokesman said that Hong Kong Police continued to contact relatives of unlocated Hong Kong people for the collection of DNA samples. The Police had so far taken samples from 25 family members of the victims.

A dedicated webpage containing information on the tsunamis 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 total number of page views up to January 6 stood at 1,084,569.

The webpage provides, with the consent of the families concerned, information on the personal particulars of Hong Kong residents reported to have lost contact with their families. Hyperlinks were also established with the dedicated websites of the Thai Government and Red Cross on the tsunamis.

The spokesman also advised the public to beware of suspected fraud e-mails soliciting donations to help South Asian people affected by the tsunamis. Reports on such emails can be made to the Police at 2860 5012.

Ends/Friday, January 7, 2005

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