The Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency in New Delhi on Tuesday, November 7, as the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research predicted “severe” levels of airborne pollutants for the next three days.

A resident of Noida, a city just outside New Delhi, filmed the thick smog clouding the air outside of his apartment early on November 8. The previous day he captured the extremely low visibility caused by the air pollution as he was driving his car.

The association’s president, Dr Krishan Kumar Aggarwal, said on Facebook that the Air Quality Index reading in many parts of Delhi and the National Capital Region had surpassed 1,000. The highest and most hazardous reading on the Air Quality Index’s website stops at 500.

Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, tweeted, “Delhi has become a gas chamber.” Credit: Twitter/@befikrame via Storyful