Nearly 200,000 people in Thailand have been admitted to hospital because of air pollution this week, officials have said.
The country’s capital, Bangkok – home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations – is currently shrouded in a thick haze.
The toxic air is an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning.
What is the most polluted part of Thailand?
The public health ministry said 50 districts in Bangkok on Wednesday 8 March recorded unsafe levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles, which are so tiny they can enter the bloodstream.
Levels dropped on Thursday, but remained well above World Health Organization guidelines.
The situation was worse in the northern city of Chiang Mai, in an agricultural region where farmers burn crop stubble at this time of year.
Around midday local time, the popular tourist destination was ranked the third-most polluted city in the world by monitoring firm IQAir.