TEHRAN: Primary schools will be closed on Monday in Tehran as thick fog caused by pollution smothers the Iranian capital and most of the surrounding province, local authorities said.
They also announced Sunday they would impose traffic restrictions in Tehran, home to 8.5 million inhabitants, allowing cars onto the streets in alternating shifts, depending on their number plates.
Similar measures were taken in December when primary schools in Tehran and most of its province were forced to close for several days because of the pollution.
Average concentrations of the finest and most hazardous airborne particles hit 144 microgrammes per cubic meter in Tehran on Sunday and peaked at 169 in some areas, municipal authorities said.
That is far above the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of 25 microgrammes per cubic meter on average over a 24-hour period.
The microscopic particles lodge deep in the lungs and are harmful to human health.
Local authorities urged the most vulnerable people — children, pregnant women, the elderly and those suffering from heart problems — to remain indoors.
Every year, Iran’s sprawling capital suffers some of the worst pollution in the world when cool temperatures cause an effect known as temperature inversion.
The phenomenon creates a layer of warm air above the city that traps in the pollution produced by more than eight million cars and motorbikes.
This year the situation has been exacerbated as the country has seen very little rainfall.
Iranian media reports say 80 percent of the pollution in Tehran is caused by fumes from vehicle exhaust pipes.
High pollution shuts schools in Tehran
High pollution shuts schools in Tehran
At least 19 killed in collapse of two buildings in Morocco’s Fez, state news agency says
- Search and rescue operations ongoing, injured taken to hospital
- Fez is a former capital, located in northeastern Morocco
At least 19 people were killed and 16 injured early on Wednesday by the collapse of two buildings in Morocco’s northeastern city of Fez, a former capital, the state news agency said.
Local authorities in the Fez prefecture reported two adjacent four-story buildings had collapsed overnight, the state news agency said.
The buildings were inhabited by eight families and were in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, it reported.
As soon as they were informed of the incident, local authorities, security services, and civil protection units moved to the scene and immediately began search and rescue operations, it said.
The injured were transported to the university hospital center in Fez, while search and rescue operations continued around the clock to find others who may still be trapped under the rubble, the news agency reported. Most of Morocco’s population, financial, industrial hubs and vital infrastructure are concentrated in the northwest, with the rest of the country reliant on farming, fisheries and tourism.
