Hong Kong is to ban all British travellers after putting the UK back on its "extremely high-risk' coronavirus list.

The move - which the government said will be come into effect from this Thursday (1 July) - aims to curb the spread of the Delta COVID variant, first identified in India.

It said in a statement the ban is due to "the recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the UK and the widespread Delta variant virus strain there, coupled with a number of cases with L452R mutant virus strains detected by tests from people arriving from the UK".

It means anyone who has been in Britain for more than two hours will be restricted from entering Hong Kong.

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Parents in Hong Kong with children in Britain reacted with shock and said they had paid large sums to comply with COVID testing rules, but their children would now be stranded.

So far there have been 111,157 confirmed cases of the Delta variant in the UK - 95% of all new COVID cases, according to the latest Public Health England figures.

A new strain, Lambda, has been designated as a variant under investigation with six cases detected between 23 February and 7 June - of which five had been linked to overseas travel, PHE said.

Local health authorities in Hong Long had already moved Britain from the "high-risk" to "very high-risk" list.

It is the second time the region has barred arrivals from Britain after a ban that was in force from December 2020 until May.

The latest action is expected to have a big impact on business travellers to Hong Kong - considered a key Asian financial hub, and comes days after quarantine rules for visitors were beefed up.

Hong Kong has already banned arrivals from India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Last week it banned passenger flights from Indonesia after imported COVID-19 cases from there crossed thresholds set by the global financial hub.

Hong Kong's flight suspension rule is triggered if five or more passengers test positive on arrival, or 10 or more passengers are found to have any strain of the coronavirus while in quarantine.

The region has recorded more than 11,800 cases and 210 deaths since the start of the pandemic.