East Jakarta Hit By Hail, Stormy Rain

Jakarta, The East Jakarta region was hit by hail on Saturday during heavy and stormy rain at around 03.00 p.m. local time.

"I was afraid because hail never occurred before in Jakarta," Yosi, a resident of Kampung Bulak, East Jakarta, said here Saturday.

Marble-sized ice balls fell on people`s roofs noisily from the sky during two hours pf heavy rain in many parts of East Jakarta.

However, the hail occurred only five minutes and the heavy stormy rain ended just before the time for Muslims to do the Ashar (afternoon) prayers.

People remained inside their houses during the rain because there were frequent bolts of lightning.

Some tress on Ngurah Rai Street, Duren Sawit, collapsed due to the strong winds.
Some houses were also affected and reportedly suffered minor damage such as broken TV antenna and roofs.

Trees that had fallen on roads were later cleared so that traffic could run normally again.