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| New pollution high as haze chokes Singapore | New pollution high as haze chokes Singapore |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state. | Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state. |
| The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) - the highest in the country's history. | |
| The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country. | The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country. |
| Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned on Thursday that the haze could remain in place for weeks. | Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned on Thursday that the haze could remain in place for weeks. |
| "We can't tell how this problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it depends on the weather, it depends on the wind," he said. | "We can't tell how this problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it depends on the weather, it depends on the wind," he said. |
| "It can easily last for several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October." | "It can easily last for several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October." |
| 'Life threatening' | |
| A PSI reading above 300 is defined as "hazardous", while Singapore government guidelines say a PSI reading of above 400 over 24 hours "may be life threatening to ill and elderly persons". | |
| "Healthy people [may also] experience adverse symptoms that affect normal activity," the government says. | |
| Singapore resident Nicole Wu told the BBC that she had stayed indoors for the past two days. | |
| "It's terrible. In my flat the windows are all closed with the air conditioning on," she said. "My mother has to wear a mask to go shopping." | |
| "I can't even see what's happening outside my house due to the smog. You can't see birds [or] moving objects," she added. | |
| Philip Koh, a doctor, told AFP news agency that the number of medical consultations he had had in the past week had increased by 20%. | |
| "My patients are telling me they are worried about how long this is going to last and how much higher this is going to go," he said. | |
| Singapore's National Environment Agency has started providing hourly PSI updates on its website, in addition to the three-hourly updates it previously provided. | |
| Around 300 schools in southern Malaysia have now been closed as a result of the smog. Schools in Singapore are currently closed for the holidays. | |
| The fires are caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore. | The fires are caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore. |
| The smog has strained diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia - two countries that usually share good relations, the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta reports. | |
| Mr Lee said Singapore had provided satellite date to Indonesia to help it identify companies involved and said that if any Singapore firms were involved, that would be addressed. | |
| Indonesia says two helicopters with cloud seeding equipment were deployed early on Friday to try and create artificial rain to put out the fire, AFP reported. | |
| Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said "all the country's resources" would be mobilised to extinguish the fires. | |
| Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. | Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. |
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