Islamabad, April 17 || A destructive hailstorm ripped through parts of Pakistan's capital Islamabad and provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), claiming lives of at least five people and damaging properties and standing crops worth millions.
Several vehicles were damaged in Islamabad as hailstones as big as the size of a golf ball battered the region. The capital's famous Faisal Mosque also suffered damage with windows broken due to the hailstorm. Strong winds uprooted trees and power pylons in the Tornal area, which remained the worst affected in the capital.
Locals said they had never witnessed such a hailstorm in the capital before.
"The hailstones were the size of golf balls and started falling like rain. It felt scary. We saw it smashing the windscreens of several vehicles and also damaging other structures," said one of the locals in Islamabad.
In other provinces, the hailstorm followed by the flash floods, claimed lives of locals causing serious damages to public property besides damaging ready crop fields.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the rain-induced flash floods affected traffic on the main Peshawar-Torkham Road where the traffic remained suspended for at least five hours. The swollen streams also flooded the main roads.