Vietnam's capital blanketed by toxic smog

Hanoi: Thick smog blanketed Hanoi on Friday, obscuring buildings and leaving nine million residents choking on toxic air as the Vietnamese capital top...

Hanoi: Thick smog blanketed Hanoi on Friday, obscuring buildings and leaving nine million residents choking on toxic air as the Vietnamese capital topped a list of the world's most polluted major cities.

Authorities urged people to wear masks and limit time outdoors, but commuters told AFP they were struggling to breathe through the putrid smog, now a fixture of the winter months in the city.

According to IQAir, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- hit 227 micrograms per cubic metre, 15 times the World Health Organization's recommended maximum daily average exposure.

Hanoi topped the Swiss monitoring company's ranking of the world's most polluted major cities during the morning, before falling back down.