Smog kills 13 in southeastern Pakistan

At least 13 people were killed and 40 others were injured on Saturday in road accidents due to poor visibility caused by smog in southeastern Pakistan, local media reported.

The smog has caused road closures, flight disruption and power shutdowns in different parts of the country.

The M2 Motorway -- a 375-kilometer-long (233 miles) road which connects the northeastern Lahore city to the capital Islamabad -- was closed at various places for heavy traffic due to low visibility early Saturday morning to avoid traffic accidents, Mahmood Ali, spokesperson for the motorway told Anadolu Agency.

The smog also disrupted flight operations out of eastern Multan and northeastern Faisalabad cities and all international flights en route to Faisalabad were diverted to Lahore.

The power ministry said the smog affected power transmission lines causing outages in various parts of the country.

"Some transmission lines and power plants tripped due to heavy smog but now the situation is better and electricity would soon be restored in all the cities," Shaukat Afzal, spokesman of the northwestern Peshawar city's Electric Supply Company told Anadolu Agency.

The meteorological department said in a statement, that fog is likely to prevail in many parts of the country during the months of November and December.

Smog contains pollutants that may cause eye and throat irritation, and difficulty in breathing, an advisory from the department warned.