End of the road for Hanoi's 7m motorbikes drives riders to fury

As the mid-afternoon heat subsides, the streets of Hanoi come alive with dizzying traffic and the deafening roar of thousands of motorbikes.

- Nga Pham

The city has nearly 7m - that’s almost one for each resident.

But its love of the motorbike comes at a cost. Vietnam’s capital has consistently ranked among the world’s most air-polluted cities.

Narrow alleys are filled with cooking smoke and motorbike fumes, making it hard to breathe.

That may be about to change.

The country’s prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, signed an order last week banning all petrol-powered motorbikes from Hanoi’s core inner city - an area about a quarter the size of London's zone one. Set to come in next year, it is part of a new effort to combat air pollution.

But the decision has provoked a strong mixed reaction from local residents, some calling the ban a “discrimination against the poor”.