New Delhi government employees have been ordered to work from home as toxic smog continues to blanket India's capital on Friday.

Whatever the causes of the smog, by one ranking Delhi was not just the most polluted city in the world, but “nearly five times as bad as the second most polluted city, Dhaka,” in Bangladesh next door, as Shashi Tharoor, a leader of the opposition in Parliament and best-selling author, posted on X.

Unhealthy

India’s capital region, Delhi, has virtually come to a halt as air pollution levels reached a “severe plus” category, creating what officials have described as a public health emergency.

Residents in India's northern states woke up to another day of poor air quality on Tuesday, as a layer of dense fog shrouded most of the region, and pollution in the capital Delhi remained severe. India battles air pollution every winter as cold,

India's capital was left gasping this week as air pollution smog reduced visibility to near zero and raised air quality levels more than 130 times safe limits.