LAHORE: A rare hailstorm gave parts of Lahore a feel of a hill station on Saturday afternoon, leading them to ignore a massive traffic breakdown that followed.The storm struck the city at 4.45pm, concentrating its intensity downtown and in areas around Gulberg. Hailstones the size of small strawberries soon carpeted streets and rooftops.

People watched the freak turn of weather with a pleasant surprise. At some places some people panicked and started giving “azans”.

A traffic gridlock followed the hailstorm, making driving a misery on roads awash with a hail of stones.

But on the other hand, motorists were seen relishing the happening instead of fuming over the traffic jam and the young made the most of the opportunity by playing with hailstones. Mobile phones were taken out to take stillss and make movies of the falling hailstones.

Reports from different parts of the city indicated the storm was partial as many localities like Faisal Town merely received a light shower.

Temperature dropped significantly after the storm.

The Met office did not record the hailstorm, but said that it was rare. “The plains of Punjab do receive hailstones in this part of winter because of differences in ground and air temperature. But this one was rare,” a meteorologist remarked.

The Met office said rain and hailstorm had been caused by a westerly system affecting the northern areas. Another westerly would bring rain over the plains and snowfall over the hills from Monday, it said.

The Met office recorded 12mm of rain at Lahore airport and 4.5mm at its Jail Road observatory. The maximum temperature was 22 degrees Celsius and the minimum 7.5 degrees.