HONG KONG (Reuters) - The worst pollution in two years smothered Hong Kong for a second day on Thursday, prompting warnings to the old and sick to stay indoors and obscuring one of the world's most famous views.
Pollution readings were "very high" in business and shopping districts such as Central, Western, Causeway Bay and Mongkok, air monitoring stations showed, surpassed only once in March 2010 when a sandstorm in northern China covered Hong Kong in dust.
"Bad air is trapped here. But even though external circumstances can't blow away the pollutants, the problem still lies fundamentally in vehicular emissions in Hong Kong itself," said Patrick Fung of Clean Air Network, a local pro-environment group.