‘Airpocalypse’ hits Siberian city as heatwave sparks forest fires

Monitoring suggests toxic smoke in Yakutsk is one of world's worst ever air pollution events

• Everything is on fire': Siberia hit by unprecedented burning

A heatwave in one of the world's coldest regions has sparked forest fires and threatened the Siberian city of Yakutsk with an airpocalypse" of thick toxic smoke, atmospheric monitoring services have reported.

High levels of particulate matter and possibly also chemicals including ozone, benzene and hydrogen cyanide are thought likely to make this one of the world's worst ever air pollution events.