A sandstorm in Iraq has left more than 5,000 people with severe respiratory problems.
In Baghdad, the Ministry of Health reported one fatality on Thursday, and almost a thousand people were taken to clinics there alone with breathing difficulties.
According to the authorities, more than 700 people had to be hospitalized in the province of Al-Anbar, west of the capital.
It was the seventh sandstorm in Iraq within a month.
The sandstorm shrouded six of Iraq's 18 provinces in a dense cloud of dust on Thursday morning.
In Al-Anbar and in the province of Kirkuk north of the capital, the authorities asked people not to go outdoors, according to the state media.
According to the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, people with “chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma” and older people with heart failure were particularly affected.
Most of the patients admitted were able to leave the hospitals again.
Iraq is particularly hard hit by climate change.
In recent years, there have been repeated heat waves and long periods of drought.
According to estimates by the World Bank, the country could lose around 20 percent of its water reserves by 2050.
In early April, a government official warned that Iraq could expect "272 days of dust" a year for decades to come.