Thick fog forces expressway closures across China
Conditions expected to persist for several days in some parts of the country
Thick fog forced the temporary closure of expressways across China on Tuesday, with visibility cut to less than 50 metres in some areas.
The eastern province of Anhui was one of the worst affected areas. In the city of Fuyang, all expressway entrances were closed and traffic police mobilised to direct vehicles as visibility fell to less than 200 metres, the report said.
In neighbouring Linquan county, the weather observatory issued a red fog alert – the highest in the country’s four-tier warning system. Entrances to the main expressway to Beijing were shut at about 2am, stranding more than 100 trucks.
Similar conditions were reported in the provincial capital of Hefei.
“It wasn’t easy to make it here because I couldn’t see the road clearly. I’ve been stuck here for almost two hours,” a truck driver stranded by an expressway on-ramp in Hefei said.
Dense fog also enveloped the cities of Deyang, Nanchong and Bazhong in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, where access to many arterial roads was temporarily halted as visibility was cut to less than 50 metres in some cases, the report said.
In the county-level city of Tacheng in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, buildings and trees were barely visible in the fog.
The China Meteorological Administration said on Wednesday that the fog in northern Anhui and some parts of Sichuan would continue for several days, and advised local authorities keep a close eye on traffic.
