JUST IN: Pakistan shuts schools in Lahore over record pollution

Air quality in the city of 14 million people has breached levels considered “dangerous,” prompting the government to close schools and urge citizens to stay indoors.....Read Full Article>>

Primary schools in Pakistan’s second-largest city Lahore will close for a week as a result of unprecedented air pollution, the provincial government announced Sunday.

The metropolis in the country’s east has for days been blanketed in a thick layer of smog caused by traffic fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burning on farms, and pollution-trapping winter temperatures.

Lahore, home to of 14 million people, was at the top of a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities on Sunday, based on data released by Pakistani authorities and Swiss air quality monitoring group IQAir.

The city’s air quality index, which measures a range of pollutants, climbed to over 1,000, which the Punjab provincial government described as “unprecedented.” The level of 300 is already considered “dangerous.”