Hailstorm in Ust-Kamenogorsk in July

Photo courtesy of yk-news.kz.

A ping pong ball-sized hailstorm hit Ust-Kamenogorsk city in eastern Kazakhstan on July 15, Tengrinews reports citing Yk-news.kz.

People were looking for shelters to hide from the hailstones the size of a quail eggs.

"We built a homemade greenhouse from our old windows, but hailstorm destroyed it," a resident of Mirniy village said looking slightly shocked, "The garden was covered with a 5 cm layer of ice. All our seedling died."

The emergency services are estimating the damage caused by hail that lasted for 7 minutes. The department received around 50 calls during these 7 minutes. People were mostly complaining about damaged cars, metal bodies and windows of more than 30 vehicles were damaged. Several trees fell that day, but fortunately no one was hurt.