20,000 stranded in rare heavy fog at China's Chengdu airport

Over 20,000 passengers have been left stranded by delayed or cancelled flights due to rare fog that hit southwestern Chinese Chengdu city in years.
A red alert for flight delays was issued at midnight and it remained in place as of today afternoon.
The runway was closed for nearly 10 hours and was accessible for limited operation till noon.
According to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Sichuan province, 49 flights had been cancelled as of today noon, stranding over 20,000 passengers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
Another 32 flights were cancelled yesterday, and 35 arrival flights were forced to land in other airports.

The airport said the heavy fog has disrupted most of the flights and stranded the passengers.
Certain flights scheduled to fly tomorrow might also be affected.