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© Arun KumarMassive pieces of hail caused damage to crops in Mathura district's villages.
It was 3.30pm on Friday. The hailstorm started suddenly as Bhura Singh Meena of Bilauthi village in Mathura district was working in his field. "The hailstones were pretty big and hurting. We ran for cover to the local school," said Meena.

The storm subsided in a few minutes but what happened next is something Meena hasn't seen in his 60-odd years. It started again, but this time there was no rain, just hail. "It was like hard white balls falling from the sky," he said.

Three spells of hail took place in a span of around 40 minutes in the district. The storm started over Vrindavan and move north-northwest leaving a trail of smashed car windshields, hole-ridden asbestos roofs, scores of dead birds and animals as well as injured people. A house in Nagla Imam Khan village collapsed, killing two persons.

"Hailstones weighing up to 1kg fell during the storm," said district revenue official Ranvir Singh. There was no way of confirming the claim, but thousands of hectares of flattened wheat fields through the district told their own tale of the storm's fury.


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Several cars parked at the Vrindavan temple were damaged in a hailstorm