Hundreds of students in Indonesia’s Palangkaraya protested on Friday, demanding stronger government action against wildfires that have blanketed the city and surrounding areas in toxic haze for months.

Many protesters wore surgical masks and gathered under an orange sky with severely reduced visibility, calling on authorities to declare a national emergency to unlock additional assistance.

The demonstrators held banners criticising the government outside the governor’s office in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island, where the fires are burning.

“We call upon the Central Kalimantan provincial government to state clearly that it is unable to mitigate this disaster, so that the situation may be officially designated a national disaster,” protest leader Yuyun Sanjaya told the crowd.

“How is it possible that such thick, dense smoke is being inhaled by helpless elderly people and newborn infants, and the government simply lets it happen?” he said.

The students sang Indonesia’s patriotic song Indonesia Pusaka and briefly clashed with police. No injuries or arrests were reported. The protesters later collected their rubbish and dispersed peacefully.

Wildfires burned more than 1.9 million hectares in Indonesia in the nine months to September, according to deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas. The government has neither confirmed nor denied the figure, AFP reported.

The resulting haze has sickened hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia and spread to neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and Timor-Leste.

Public frustration has grown amid diplomatic objections from neighbouring countries and sporadic anti-government protests.

On Thursday, schoolchildren on Indonesia’s Java island prayed for rain as fires continued to ravage several regencies and conservation areas.