40 Chinese cities engulfed in heavy smog for third day

New Delhi: As many as 40 cities in China continue to remain engulfed in heavy pollution for the 3rd consecutive day today.

Many of the cities are under red alert for severe air pollution as it is also predicted that situation may worsen due to not so favourable weather conditions.

While 23 cities in north China, including Beijing and Tianjin, have activated red alerts as the air began to turn hazy starting Friday, 17 other cities declared orange alerts, the second highest alert invoking emergency measures, state- run CCTV said.

As many as 35 flights in Tianjin, east of here, were delayed or cancelled and highways into the city of 7.5 million people were closed due to "extremely low visibility", according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

Beijing and other local governments have imposed odd-even car restrictions on roads and cut emissions for factories.

The heavy smog came a bit later than previously forecast as efforts paid off, and pollutant density in the air has somewhat been reduced in these cities, Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

However, further observation is needed to confirm the actual effects of these measures, and air pollution is still likely to worsen as weather conditions continue to be unfavourable, the ministry said in a statement.

(With PTI inputs)