Shocking pictures show the moment a Siberian beach was hit by a freak hailstorm on one of the hottest days of the summer.
Bathers ran out of the Ob River clutching their heads as hail the size of golf balls fell from the sky.
Footage of the freak weather – on a day which saw temperatures rising to 37C – includes one female voice saying: ‘If we die, I love you.’
Sunbathers run for cover as storm of giant hailstones hits a beach on the Ob River in Siberia
One sunbather quoted by The Siberian Times said: ‘It was like being hit by raining bullets from the sky.’
‘It was an attack from the heavens,’ said another.
As the river and beach were pummelled from the skies, children cried and screamed in horror, cowering under trees.
‘My husband was protecting my young daughter but his back was exposed to the hailstones and he has bruising all over it,’ said one woman.
Dozens were seen taking cover from the hail under sun umbrellas and beach side shacks with corrugated roofing.
Towels, beach mats and personal possessions were sent flying by heavy winds.
Heavy winds hit the sandy beach in Novosibirsk late on Saturday afternoon as hundreds were cooling off from the hot summer’s day by swimming in the Ob, the fifth longest river in the world.
Bathers said that minutes before the storm there was no clue about the dramatic cloudburst to come.
Footage of the freak weather includes one female voice saying: ‘If we die, I love you’
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