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Smog in Montreal: sporting events have been cancelled
Photo: Graham Hughes / ZUMA Press / IMAGO
The forest fires that have been going on for weeks throughout Canada have at times made the metropolis of Montreal the city with the worst air quality in the world. According to the Swiss technology company IQAir, which monitors air quality worldwide, the city in the province of Quebec in eastern Canada had the highest air pollution in the world on Sunday – ahead of Johannesburg (South Africa) and Jakarta (Indonesia).
The Canadian broadcaster CBC wrote that the environmental agency ECCC attributed the smoke in Montreal and in the capital Ottawa to the numerous forest fires.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said in a tweet that vulnerable people should not leave homes. Several sporting events and concerts were also cancelled due to the smog. Public sports fields and swimming pools were closed, as the city announced on Twitter. Pictures showed how the Montreal skyline was shrouded in gray smoke.
According to the regional government of Quebec, there have been around 80 wildfires in the province. "The situation of the forest fires in northern Quebec continues to be worrying. We are monitoring the situation closely," Legault wrote.
According to media reports, authorities in Canada's capital Ottawa also warned of bad air. There, the air quality corresponded to a "very high risk level", according to CBC/Radio-Canada. For weeks, numerous fires have been raging in Canada's west and now also in the northeast of the country, the smoke of which had already reached the northeast coast of the USA, especially New York.
ani/dpa