Haze hits emergency-level in Malaysia amid mass fires in Indonesia

Air pollution in a town in Sarawak state on Borneo Island breaches

Malaysia's emergency-level threshold amid worsening

transboundary haze linked to forest and land fires in neighbouring Indonesia.

The Air Pollutant Index in Serian, a small agricultural town near

the border to Indonesia's Kalimantan province, surges to 521,

according to Malaysia's environment department. Sarawak's capital,

Kuching, also shows a hazardous reading of 311.

In Kuching, several landmarks were shrouded in haze.

The State Assembly Hall was only half-visible from street level and

along the river the normally picturesque bridge and walkways were largely empty.