Malaysia got a short breathing space on Friday from its worst air pollution crisis in eight years as changing winds scattered acrid smoke from forest fires burning in neighbouring Indonesia.
The skies cleared over downtown Kuala Lumpur's iconic Petronas Towers and palm trees shivered in breezes that carried away some of the haze that has shrouded the city for a week, although weather officials warned the respite might be brief.
"We do believe there will be a temporary relief," said Wong Teck Kiong of the Malaysian Meteorological Service.
Rain promised to bring more relief over the weekend, as the wind carried the haze away from central Malaysia towards the country's eastern states of Trengganu and Kelantan, where visibility had fallen sharply, he said.
Malaysians flocked to Friday prayers at mosques around the country to pray for a quick end to the crisis. The prime minister urged citizens of all faiths to beg for divine intervention to banish the haze that has threatened public health. "When something like this happens, we have to ask for God's help," Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying in the Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysiay.
Air pollution readings fell by Friday evening, with just six areas in the range considered unhealthy, among them the two areas declared emergency zones on Thursday. Kuala Lumpur, with a reading of 276, had the most polluted air.
Abdullah paved the way for the removal of emergency measures, saying they could be dropped if the pollution readings fell below the 500 level that triggered the emergency. The haze has sent asthma attacks soaring, forced hundreds of schools to close, grounded some flights and disrupted shipping.
Sore throats and red eyes are commonplace and face masks are the capital's hottest seller. The haze has also threatened the country's tourism industry at a time when big-spending Middle East visitors usually flock to the country.
In Sumatra, a short ferry ride away from peninsular Malaysia, fires still raged, some of them deep in thick forests more than a day's journey away without helicopters, said a local police chief at Rokan Hilir, where about 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) are estimated by a forestry official to be on fire.
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