TEHRAN (AFP) - Air pollution has killed 3,600 people in just a month in the Iranian capital Tehran, an official said, describing the city's environmental situation as a "collective suicide".

"Pollution has directly or indirectly caused the deaths of 3,600 people in the month of Aban (October 23 to November 23)," Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, director of Tehran's clean air committee, was quoted by Tuesday's edition of Kargozaran newspaper.

He said that the deaths were caused by heart attacks brought on by the air pollution and that the smog was responsible for 80 percent of the fatal heart problems that month in Tehran, one of the world's most polluted cities.

"It is a very serious and lethal crisis, a collective suicide," he warned. "A real revolution is needed to resolve this problem."

The new figures showed a sharp rise in pollution-related deaths in