Massive sandstorm chokes Lhasa

Lhasa was engulfed by a massive sandstorm on Saturday that turned the sky around the Tibetan capital yellow, Xinhua reported yesterday.

Residents rushed through the streets covering their faces with their hands, while some taxi drivers were quoted as saying the frequent sandstorms had made the city's streets unsafe for driving.

Swift economic development in Tibet , global warming and deterioration of the grassland ecological system had been blamed for causing sandstorms in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, the agency quoted meteorological officials as saying.

The plateau is a main source of China's sandstorms.

The situation has been exacerbated by expanding desertification in Tibet. More than half its total land area was now sandy soil and desert, making it the third worst-affected region in China after Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia , Xinhua said.

Last year, mainland meteorologists determined that the frequency of sandstorms on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau had increased over the past 40 years.