LAHORE, Jan 1: Thick fog descended on Lahore for the second time during the current winter on Wednesday night, forcing cancellation of all flights.

The visibility at the Lahore airport was zero at 10pm. The fog engulfed the city for the fist time on Tuesday night. It started developing at around 10pm and reduced the visibility to only 50 metres within an hour, forcing the suspension of all flights. It remained so till 8am after which the visibility started improving gradually. The weather was finally cleared at around noon.

According to the airport inquiry, the last flight landed at 11.30pm on Tuesday night and the flight operation was resumed at around 11am.

Many passengers were stranded at the airport because of the suspension of the flight operation. There was a rush at the airport during entire Wednesday with the authorities struggling to clear the backlog.

Fog also disturbed the train schedule as trains had to be moved a bit slowly to avoid accidents, railways officials said.

Transporters said buses and wagons on the inter-city routes moved slowly because of the thick fog on highways and the motorway.

The Met office also reported thick fog in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Shorkot, Multan, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura.

Meanwhile, Parachinar was the coldest place in the country on Wednesday with a minimum temperature of -11 degrees C. It was followed by Skardu and Kalam -10 degrees C, Astore -9, Gilgit -8, Quetta -6, Saidu Sharif and Malam Jabba -4, Muzaffarabad -2, Murree -1 and Islamabad zero.

The maximum temperature in Lahore was 17. 1 degrees C and the minimum 5.5 degrees.

The Met office forecast more fog in Lahore and several other cities in the province during the next 24 hours.

APP adds: Light rain is expected at isolated places of north Balochistan, NWFP, lower Sindh and northern Punjab, Meteorological Office forecast on Wednesday.

During the last 24 hours, dry weather was reported from across the country.