Lahore ordered all primary schools to close for a week in response to soaring pollution levels, as the toxic smog enveloping the Pakistani city continued to pose severe health risks.
Lahore held the top spot on a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities on Sunday after recording its highest ever pollution reading of 1900 near the Pakistan-India border on Saturday. It went far beyond the threshold of 300 PM2.5 – fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter – which the World Health Organization (WHO) defines as “dangerous”.
