Beijing skies turn yellow as sand, dust engulf Chinese capital

Beijing: The skies above Beijing turned yellow and air pollution soared to severe levels as a giant cloud of sand and dust particles rolled into the city, propelled by strong winds from the north of China.

Beijing's air quality index rose to 324 as of 4:00 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Thursday, mainly due to larger particles of sand and dust, according to municipal authorities. The particles originated from Mongolia and the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and high winds are expected to carry the pollutants to central and eastern China by Friday, the China Meteorological Administration said.