A number of families desperate to escape the world record setting levels of air pollution and seek refuge on Mt. Vodno over the weekend suffered in freezing temperatures as the Skopje city bus sent to pick them up got stuck into the lines of cars crowding the mountain.

City of Skopje authorities tried to limit car access to the mountain by placing barriers blocking them from parking along the road, and are promoting bus lines to the popular mid level of the mountain. But this proved a dangerous combination as the cars parked along the road anyway, and the buses were barely able to squeak through.

The kids were freezing, they waited for two hours, and were packed like sardines in the bus on the drive back, an eyewitness to the incident wrote online.

Others called out Mayor Petre Silegov for not being able to restrict car movement on the mountain and is allowing motorists to use up the road for parking.