Five locations in Malacca, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have registered unhealthy level Air Pollutant Index (API) readings this afternoon, the Department of Environment (DOE) said in a statement today.

Three of the locations are in Malacca, namely Bukit Rambai (122), Muar (102) Malacca City (101) and one each in Selangor, Banting (111) and Kuala Lumpur, Cheras (117).

The API in Nilai and Port Klang are also close to the unhealthy level and readings in Nilai showed 97, Port Klang 93, followed by Port Dickson and Seremban (83).

Apart from the five unhealthy spots, 27 other areas registered moderate readings while 11 other spots remained at the satisfactory level.

An API reading of between 0 and 50 is categorised as good, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101 to 200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy) and 300 and above (dangerous).

The statement said the haze which has returned to Malaysia would remain for a short period due to a change in the wind direction.

From Jakarta this evening, Bernama reported that the haze has blanketed Riau and reduced vision there this morning to 70 metres at the Pekanbaru Airport, and 800 metres in Dumai.

Hundreds of hotspots detected in Riau

This was caused by the increase in the number of hotspots detected in Riau, to hundreds, to indicate simultaneously that there was a recurrence in the burning of forests in a number of places in the province.

The hazy situation also affected arrivals and departures of aircraft to and from the Pekanbaru Airport in Riau this morning.

The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) of Indonesia said to date satellite monitoring detected 173 hotspots in Riau.

This included 69 hotspots in Rokan Hilir, Bengkalis (41), Rokan Hulu (nine), Siak (20), Dumai (12) and one each in Kampar, Pelalawann and Kepulauan Meranti.

NDMA said smoke from the forest fires had badly affected the quality of air in a number of areas in Riau.

Its Information, Data and Public Relations Centre head Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the agency had coordinated aid to the Riau government by providing two Hercules C-130 aircraft and four Casa aircraft for cloud seeding operations to avoid the haze disaster.

- Bernama