Study: Southeast Asian haze crisis killed over 100,000

This file picture taken on October 17, 2015 shows a MI-17 helicopter run by the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency conducting water-bombs on a fire spot in Ogan Komering Ilir area in South Sumatra province. -AFP filepic

JAKARTA: A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the “killer haze”.

Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.