By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney
**A huge cloud of red dust driven by gale force winds has been choking Australia’s biggest city, Sydney.**Residents have described scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie after waking to an eerie dawn.
Flights have been diverted and ferries cancelled, while road traffic has been at a crawl.
It has been a difficult 24 hours for other parts of the Australian continent, which have been hit by earthquakes, hail storms and bushfires.
The wild conditions have been caused by thunderstorms that have scattered dust from drought-stricken inland regions.
The suffocating haze has forced many of Sydney’s residents to seek refuge indoors, while those that have battled the elements have been stung by tiny particles of dust propelled by gale force winds.
Some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including the Opera House, have been obscured.
Doctors have warned people with asthma as well as heart and lung disease to stay at home.
Sydney’s fiery dawn was caused by the sun hitting a blanket of dust that was whipped up by wild weather in parched areas of the New South Wales outback.