‘This is Earth, not Mars’: Alarmed locals share photos of blood-red sky in Jambi, Indonesia (VIDEOS)

Horrified locals in Jambi, Indonesia have been posting incredible videos and photos online of bright orange and blood-red skies as fires in the region continue to burn, distorting the daylight.

Some residents have been posting their footage using the hashtag #prayforjambi and calling on the government to take stronger action to put out the fires and battle the haze.

Land-clearing fires are causing a high increase in the level of particulate pollutants in the air which filter out some of the sun’s wavelengths, resulting in the intense red effect, according to a spokesman for Indonesia’s Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency. 

Illegal land clearance burnings across Indonesia create significant smoke and haze every year. Thousands of schools were closed in the country earlier this month due to the poor air quality. 

The state recently deployed thousands of additional officers to fight fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, bringing the total number of personnel involved to over 14,000.

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