Malaysia haze closes schools as Kuala Lumpur API nears 170

Malaysia closed schools in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of the country on Friday after haze from fires in neighbouring Indonesia pushed air quality to unhealthy levels, the education ministry said.

The ministry listed fully or partially closed schools in five states and two federal territories. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said state education departments and district education offices had been told to keep monitoring the haze and act immediately if conditions required it.

Fadhlina said school closures affect parents' daily affairs and that future decisions would be announced earlier so families had time to prepare.

Kuala Lumpur had an Air Pollutant Index reading of around 170 on Friday. Under Malaysian guidelines, API readings above 200 are classified as very unhealthy, readings above 300 as hazardous and readings beyond 500 as the threshold for declaring a local emergency.

Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim said on Thursday that schools should be closed when API readings reach 150 or higher. Swiss-based air monitor IQAir said Kuala Lumpur was the second-most polluted city globally on Friday, behind neighbouring Singapore.