A total of 173 Malaysians are to be evacuated from Pekanbaru in the haze-hit Indonesian province of Riau, said the Foreign Ministry.

It said two Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 aircraft would be deployed to evacuate the Malaysians, the majority of them students and their family members.

The aircraft are scheduled to return to the RMAF air base in Subang at 2.45pm today, it said in a statement.

The evacuation exercise was being conducted by the ministry with the National Security Council, it added.

The ministry announced earlier that it had opened an operations room to monitor the situation in Riau, as well as to provide assistance to Malaysian citizens, including students, affected by the haze in Pekanbaru.

The Indonesian government declared a state of emergency in Riau on Sept 15 when the haze in the region rose to the hazardous level.

- Bernama