Story highlights French capital suffers third day of air pollution

Metro and bus services made free of charge

Car use restricted until Friday

(CNN) Air pollution in Paris has hit dangerous levels prompting city officials to curb car use and make public transport free of charge until Friday.

The city's Metro and bus services have been free since Tuesday and set days of travel have been allocated for cars with odd and even numbers, in an attempt bring down levels of PM10, a fine particulate matter, in the air.

#Paris aujourd'hui. La preuve de la nécessité de réduire la place de la voiture en centre-ville #pollution pic.twitter.com/R10Tdu4o2Y — Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) December 6, 2016

Pollution levels in Paris have been dangerously high since November 30, according to information from AirParif, a French air quality monitoring organization.

Official figures from AirParif show PM10 concentration levels higher than 80mg/m3.

"This phenomenon is linked to an accumulation of pollution in urban areas due to very stable anticyclones lingering over parts of Europe, which traps pollution at ground level and limits its dispersion," according to official information on the AirParif website.

Read More