Delhi and its surrounding areas woke up to a thick blanket of smog on Wednesday, significantly reducing visibility. The air quality plummeted to 'very poor' levels, with the worst affected areas reaching 'severe' levels.

Delhi overtook Pakistan ’s Lahore as the world’s most polluted city in Swiss group IQAir’s live rankings, with an air quality index (AQI) score of more than 1,000, which is considered “hazardous”, but India ’s pollution authority said the AQI was around 350.

Residents of Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and nearby areas awoke to a thick layer of smog on Wednesday, which brought visibility down to near-zero levels. The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi stayed in the ‘very poor’ range,