HONG KONG moved more than 200 residents of a block of flats into isolation camps last night after an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

The rapid spread of Sars through Block E of the Amoy Gardens housing complex in Kowloon has sent alarm around the world because it suggests that the virus responsible can be spread by air or water.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday that “bodily secretions” containing the virus might somehow enter common systems that link rooms or flats.

Of the 213 Amoy residents found to be infected by Sars, 107 live in Block E, most of them in flats that are one above the other.

A link is being made to the pattern of transmission at the Metropole Hotel, also in Kowloon, where people on the ninth floor were infected, in turn spreading Sars to Toronto and Singapore and starting the outbreak at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. Leung Pak-yin, the Deputy Director of Health in Hong Kong, said that putting Amoy Gardens residents into isolation camps would protect them and enable health officials to investigate the cause of the infections in the building.

A Health Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday that 108 flats were subject to the original isolation order, but that the authorities had little information on the whereabouts of tenants from another 156 flats who are thought to have fled, prompting fears that the quarantine action would have little effect in slowing the epidemic’s spread. The Government is looking for the missing tenants.

The syndrome continues to spread. Indonesia announced its first three suspected cases yesterday, while others were also reported in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sweden. Sixty-six people have died from the disease worldwide, and almost 1,900 people have been infected in 22 countries.

Two more people have died in Canada, bringing the total to six and making the country the hardest hit by the outbreak outside of Asia. Margot Geduld, a Canadian Health Ministry spokeswoman, said a total of 129 probable cases had been detected.

Hong Kong is one of the worst hit areas, with 685 cases, 75 of them reported yesterday, and 16 deaths.

The nearby Chinese province of Guangdong, where the disease is thought to have originated, possibly from animals, has reported 800 cases and 34 deaths.

“We have no plan to declare Hong Kong an infected area,” Margaret Chan, the Director of Health, told reporters. “We have adequate supplies to provide the needs of Hong Kong citizens and there is no need for any panic run on food.”

In Australia, health officials said that a man who had recently returned from Singapore had become the country’s first likely case but had made a full recovery after being admitted to a hospital in Sydney.

In Malaysia, Mohamad Taha Arif, the Director-General of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that eight people with suspected symptoms had been admitted to hospital.

Advice to those planning to travel to the Far East remains contradictory. American health authorities advised citizens planning non-essential travel to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore or Hanoi to postpone their trips. The State Department said that the Government would pay for US diplomats and their families to leave China and Hong Kong, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was yesterday recommending no restrictions on travel, saying that all travellers should be aware of the symptoms and should seek urgent medical advice if they developed them.

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