Thick fog descended on parts of the UAE on Thursday morning, causing traffic chaos and delays at airports.

 

In Dubai, between the hours of 4am and 9am, Dubai Police announced there had been 129 traffic accidents as a result of the fog, with the command and control centre receiving some 900 calls.

 

At Abu Dhabi International, several scheduled morning flights to Europe were delayed by at least an hour, including the 8.30am flight to London Heathrow, which took off two and a half hours late.

 

Etihad Airways said all 37 of its flights into Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning had been diverted to other airports in the region “due to a technical failure at the airport”.

 

By 11.20am, the airline said the airport had started to accept traffic as the weather improved.

 

The hashtag #fog began trending on Twitter early in the morning, with users posting photos from across the country. One user said visibility was less than 250m on Sheikh Zayed Road, while others said they could see nothing from their balconies in areas such as Dubai Marina.

 

The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) said that there would be lighter patches of fog on Friday morning across Abu Dhabi and out towards Dubai.