Dozens of flights were delayed and concerns grew over public health yesterday as Moscow choked in the worst smog in living memory, blown over the Russian capital from spreading wildfires.
The city’s iconic landmarks like the Kremlin towers and the wedding-cake Stalin-era skyscrapers were completely obscured from a distance as the acrid smoke that has suffocated the capital for days showed no signs of shifting.
The wildfires have sparked a major crisis in central Russia, with the authorities rushing to protect strategic sites including the country’s main nuclear research facility from the flames.
Drivers put on their car headlights in broad daylight to see through the smog while the sun shone as a hazy disc easily viewed by the naked eye with little discomfort.
Up to 2,000 passengers were stranded at Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport when major delays hit their flights after they had crossed security and passport control to the departures area, the ITAR-TASS news agency said.
Domodedovo, in the south of Moscow, was the airport worst hit by the smog with dozens of departing flights delayed early yesterday and only a handful of aircraft able to land, its departures information showed.
Of Moscow’s other international airports, Vnukovo to the east was also experiencing delays, although the impact of the smog appeared to be less severe, while Sheremetyevo to the north was largely unaffected, officials said.
Residents of Moscow have rushed to escape the smog-drenched capital, with travel agents reporting package tours to destinations popular with Russians like Egypt, Montenegro and Turkey completely sold out.
“In the last week, the demand for tickets from Moscow sold online has gone up by 20 percent,” Irina Turina, spokeswoman of the Russian Union of Tour Operators, told Moscow Echo radio.
State air pollution monitoring service Mosekomonitoring said that carbon monoxide levels in the Moscow air were now over six-and-a-half times higher than acceptable levels.
Tiny invisible particles from the fires were also present in concentrations over twice higher than the norm, with specialists warning these could prove highly dangerous if they entered the human system.
Controversially, Moscow’s high-profile Mayor Yuri Luzhkov had refused break off his holidays and return to the city. However, reports said yesterday he had after all decided to return to the capital.
Moscow residents and tourists tried to protect themselves from the smog by donning medical masks or even just clutching wet rags to their faces. However, health officials have warned that the best precaution was to stay at home.
The smoke — easily visible from space in NASA images — penetrated into homes and offices and was even detected inside the Moscow metro, one of the deepest underground systems in the world.
The wildfires that have killed 52 people were still spreading in central Russia, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said, as weather forecasters said Russia’s worst heatwave in decades would continue in the coming days.
“Unfortunately, the number of fires have doubled in the Moscow region in the past 24 hours because of people playing with firecrackers near forests,” Vladimir Stepanov, a senior official with the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Saturday.
There were worries the flames could hit Russia’s main nuclear research site in Sarov, a city closed to foreigners, but officials said the situation was under control and soldiers deployed there would be sent elsewhere.
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