NEW DELHI - Hundreds of children ran a charity road race through poisonous smog in New Delhi on Thursday , triggering a storm of criticism about the damage to their health.
But despite the conditions, children as young as nine competed in a road race through the city organised by a non-profit organisation to mark International Children's Day."I feel all these organisers need to be sued," said Ms Tamanna Sharma, head of an environmental service consultancy on Twitter."Running in this air quality is a death sentence."
"You can see there is so much fog around and there's so much smoke. After the run, we felt suddenly so exhausted and had difficulty breathing," said 10-year-old Nitakshi Sharma. Pollution has been building up in Delhi over the past decade. But the new peak came amid increasing warnings about the dangers to children and adults.
The start of the four-day Panasonic Open India golf tournament was delayed for five hours because of the poisonous cloud.