Over 400,000 Hong Kong residents have left various Hong Kong cross border check points before Friday evening for the four-day Easter Holidays.

According to statistics from the Hong Kong Immigration Department, nearly 200,000 people left Hong Kong via Lo Wu check point, Hong Kong's largest land check point.

Lo Wu check point was crowded with passengers from 9:00 to 14: 00 Friday and people there had to wait for 30 to 40 minutes to go through the procedures.

According to Hong Kong Immigration Department, about 4.77 million people are expected to pass through land, sea and air control points during the Easter festive period, up 7.6 percent on the same period last year.

Of the total, 3.51 million will travel by land, up 6.6 percent from last year, the department said. The peak period for passenger traffic during the holidays will be from April 12 to 18. About 2.17 million passengers will travel through the Lo Wu control point, a daily average of 310,000.

To cope with the extra demand, the department has already deployed more staff to man land, sea and air control points during the holiday period. It will strengthen its cooperation with Shenzhen authorities to ensure orderly movements across the boundary.

If necessary, the Lo Wu control point will implement the contra-flow scheme to relieve congestion.

A joint command center has been set up at Lo Wu control point and contingency measures have been drawn up to handle any untoward incidents.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2006)