Belgrade city authorities say sand caused pollution

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The Belgrade city public health department said on Wednesday that the air in the Serbian capital was “very polluted” because of sand blown in from the Sahara.

“An analysis of the concentration of pollutants, meteorological data and inspections on the ground determined that the cause of the sudden drop in air quality was caused by wind bringing pollution from far away,” the department said in a press release.

It said that “an air mass full of Sahara sand reached Belgrade” and added that the particle levels showed that the pollution did not originate locally.

Earlier, a meteorology expert said that the pollution in Belgrade most probably originated from the Nikola Tesla Thermal Power Plant (TENT) in combination with sand from the Sahara.