CHENGDU: Thick fog continued to blanket parts of western and central China yesterday, causing traffic accidents, flight delays and highway closures.

Plunging visibility from the bad weather delayed more than 150 flights and left 12,000 passengers stranded yesterday in the Shuangliu International Airport in this capital of Sichuan Province, airport officials said.

The airport was closed for nearly nine hours yesterday morning before a flight to Tibet took place at 11:10 am.