'Very dangerous': Timor-Leste shuts schools over Indonesia haze

DILI, Timor-Leste - Timor-Leste began a three-day school closure on Thursday prompted by thick haze that has drifted over from raging forest fires in neighboring Indonesia.

In the capital Dili, people were out as normal under a yellow-tinged sky, but most were wearing masks, as the government advised a day earlier in announcing the school closures.

Residents welcomed the decision, although they said the pollution had been even worse earlier in the week.

"Recently, the pollution in Dili has been very severe," 30-year-old midwife Sonya da Costa Soares told AFP.

"We can't see the sun, the pollution is heavy," she added.

Though her child is still too young for school, she said the decision to keep students home was "very important so that children are not put in danger."

Indonesia experiences forest fires regularly during its dry season, but this year the blazes have been especially severe because a strong El Niño has brought drought.

The fires have burned through hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and plantations in Sumatra, Borneo and Papua, and caused air pollution to surge locally, as well as in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Timor-Leste.

Timor-Leste's government said Wednesday it was necessary to close schools "to protect the health of students, teachers and other members of the educational community, given current air quality conditions."

It urged families to keep children indoors and advised citizens to wear masks if venturing out.

Vitaliano da Costa Calapes, an 18-year-old student at St. Ignatius Loyola College, said he was preparing for upcoming exams.

"We are staying at home, but we are continuing to study... We're facing our final exams," he said.

"We believe in the coming days there will be no pollution and school will return to normal, that's what we hope," he added.

Felicidade Alves dos Santos Martins, whose daugher Febrianti was home from middle school, said the pollution had been even worse earlier in the week.

"It felt like smoke from fires was covering all of Dili and the mountains," she said.

"This pollution is very dangerous, it can make us sick." — Agence France-Presse