A CRISIS hotline is being plagued by prank callers, denying desperate people urgent counselling.
The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, which offers the only 24-hour Cantonese-speaking hotline service in the territory, last year received more than 5,000 calls.
Most of the genuine callers, aged between 15 and 34, asked about love affairs, marriage, family life, making friends, careers and sex.
About 1,500, or 30 per cent, of the callers did not seek advice or counselling, but called as a prank.
Last year, 105 people telephoned and either said nothing, or they laughed, spoke nonsense or uttered obscenities before cutting the line.
Another 1,413 callers did not speak, but tied up the line for minutes.
'This is really annoying. We cannot hang up the receiver before they cut the line. We have to wait to the last minute to see whether the person on the line needs our help,' said Suen Ka-yin, who is in charge of the hotline centre.