Rourkela: Hailstorm accompanied by heavy gust of wind left the entire Sundargarh district devastated and left one dead on Sunday evening.

Surendra Sunyani, 35, was crushed to death as a giant tree fell on his car that he had purchased only a few days ago. Sunyani was a resident of Hatibari in Nuagaon block. The impact of the crush was so high that it took more than three hours to recover his body out of the mangled remains of the vehicle.

Sunyani, a private sector employee, was on the way to get his wife Manju back from her office. She works as a computer data entry operator in the forest department at Biramitrapur. The tree got uprooted under the impact of the squall and crushed his vehicle killing him on the spot.

Sunyani's friend Sanjay Singh said: "His body was crushed so badly that it could not be retrieved despite best efforts till 9PM. Besides, power failure and heavy rain hampered rescue work." Finally, after a joint effort of fire brigade and forest department, the body could be recovered around 9.30PM.

Biramitrapur sub-divisional police officer P. Patra confirmed the incident

The squall also affected normal life in a huge manner. Hailstorm lashed across the district in two consecutive evenings. "I saw white balls lashing on my glass pane. But fortunately, no damage was done," said English teacher Godabarish Parihari.

The asbestos roof of a primary school and its hostel was damaged by the hailstorm at Bileimunda in Hemgiri block. Fortunately, the hostel was shut for the ongoing summer vacation, which prevented casualties. Bonai also remained without power for more than five hours on Sunday.

The last two evenings have been harrowing for the residents of Chhend as well. On Saturday, electricity connection was restored 2.30am, while power service normalised after midnight on Sunday," said Sarika Mohanty, resident of Chhend.