Smog refugees flee Chinese cities as 'airpocalypse' blights half a billion

Thousands head to pollution-free regions as haze descends on the country's northern industrial heartland

Tens of thousands of "smog refugees" have reportedly fled China's pollution-stricken north after the country was hit by its latest "airpocalyse" forcing almost half a billion people to live under a blanket of toxic fumes.

Huge swaths of north and central China have been living under a pollution "red alert" since last Friday when a dangerous cocktail of pollutants transformed the skies into a yellow and charcoal-tinted haze.