Sea creatures and giant hailstones rain down on Chinese city during storm

A Chinese city was pelted with giant hailstones and sea creatures during a freak storm.

Remarkable images of shrimp and starfish on the windscreens of cars were shared by Chinese social media users during the downpour in the eastern city of Qingdao.

The bizarre event led to some Twitter users describing the phenomenon as “seafood rain” after images emerged on Tuesday.

Pictures were also posted of huge hailstones, some the size of golf balls, causing extensive damage to buildings and vehicles.

The storm also led to some more humorous images being passed around online, including a photograph supposedly of an octopus on a car windscreen, which has since been revealed as fake.

While the shower of sea creatures may have been caused by the storm sucking animals out of the ocean and dropping them onto the street, there are other theories.

Some have speculated that the images may have been the result of seafood being blown from stalls at a nearby market into the road.

Instances of sea life being sucked out of the water during extreme weather conditions and dumped onto land are rare, but not unheard of.

At least four such events have been recorded in Mexico, the United States, Sri Lanka and Iran within the past two years.

Qingdao has been battered by the storm this week, causing flooding and damage to infrastructure across the city.

The Qingdao National Meteorological Station registered winds in the city blowing at 34.8 metres per second, a gale force 12 hurricane on the Beaufort scale.