Russians pelted by golf ball sized hail

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

At least 20 people were injured and more than 100 cars damaged in a sudden mid-summer hailstorm in the Russian Siberian town of Mezhdurechensk on Tuesday (August 14).

The weather suddenly changed in the evening with wind bringing a torrential downpour of huge hailstones, some the size of golf balls. Witnesses said some hailstones reached seven centimeters in diameter.

Town residents had literally to save themselves and run to nearby buildings to find cover. Big hailstones pierced holes in car windows, sometimes smashing the glass altogether.

Meteorologists said they believed the sudden summer storm was caused by a sharp temperature drop from 32 degrees Celsius at lunchtime to just 16 degrees Celsius by the evening.

Mezhdurechensk is located in the Kemerovo region in Central Siberia some 3,800 km east of Moscow.