Anja Duggert is only 15, and was one of the million to cross from East Berlin with her friends at the weekend.

She is shy, a little nervous and uncertain.

Yesterday she decided to stay in the West.

She has not yet told her family in the East. She does not know if they have any idea where she is.

At present she is living in a youth hostel in West Berlin, provided by the emergency reception centre that is coping with more than 5,000 others who are staying.

Anja is one of the youngest, and it is a delicate situation for the social security authorities who run the centre. She is one of at least a dozen her age. Are they old enough to make such a decision?

Herr Hans-Jurgen Jerghoff, aged 36, is trying to advise her. He also has decided to stay, but has a skill and relatives in West Germany.

He thought about leaving a week ago and knew it would be difficult in the West. ``I know housing is expensive, and that you have to work hard to get anywhere.''

He has not been disappointed, although he faces a long wait in temporary accommodation. Like thousands of others who have overwhelmed the centre, he is being put up in a gymnasium.

``It's not so bad. We get our meals there: coffee in the morning, bread and jam and then other meals.''

For many, who left out of despair that the system would ever change, the dramatic weekend developments have left them with a dilemma. Jens Dolezal, with an earring and punk hairstyle, is only 17 but had had enough. He trained as an electro-mechanic but wants to be a chef. He left three weeks ago. ``If I had known all this was going to happen, I would have thought very carefully about it.''

At least a thousand others have had second thoughts, many slipping back home.

Some 24,000 East Berliners are still in makeshift accommodation in halls, schools and gymnasiums. ``It's a real problem for Berlin,'' one of the administrators said. ``Children have got to go to school in these buildings.''

Poles, who have also been flocking in, are no longer being accommodated. A notice in one camp tells them to go back to Warsaw, get an entry visa for West Germany and then return.

Meanwhile, about 100,000 East Germans crossed the border to the West yesterday despite the fact that it was a working day. Most went back.

Since the border was opened on Friday night a total of 980,000 East Germans have crossed in places other than Berlin, with just 26,700 asking to stay. In Berlin, where about two million crossed, only 4,800 registered for residence.

The weekend flood has sparked a political row in Bonn over the DM100 (Pounds 34) ``welcome money'' to which the visitors are entitled once a year. In West Berlin alone the weekend has cost the taxpayer more than DM100 million.

Herr Theo Waigel, the Finance Minister, served a warning that the East Berlin Government must not be allowed to satisfy the people's craving for consumer goods by simply letting them spend West German taxpayers' money. Even though there was no question of stopping the allowance, it was time to devise a policy to make sure this tactic did not work.

West Berlin returned slowly to normal yesterday after its chaotic weekend. President von Weizsacker made an impromptu private visit to the Potsdamerplatz crossing and chatted to East German border guards.

The opening of further crossings yesterday eased the pressure as East Germans continued to pour across, many for an evening out after work. Traffic flowed more smoothly, though East German cars trailing long plumes of blue exhaust, were still everywhere. To help Berliners find out where their visitors came from, local newspapers published a guide to East German number plates.

So much traffic crossed over from Potsdam over the weekend that the Glienicke Bridge was declared in danger of collapse and the newly instituted bus service from Berlin to Potsdam suspended.