A hailstone the size of a tenis ball struck a 20-month-old, baby girl in Bisbal d'Empordà (Girona, Cataluña) yesterday.

A hailstorm, hitherto unseen there, pelted the streets and passersby with hailstones as big as 11cm across Tuesday afternoon. One struck the baby on the head and she was rushed to Hospital Josep Trueta in Girona. She died ealy this morning.

Close to 50 other people suffered injuries from bruising to fractures that afternoon including one woman who was kept in hospital before being discharged this morning. Another person suffered a broken collar bone and another a broken finger.

The Mayor, Carme Vall, expressed her sincere regrets over the death of the child and said that she had never seen anything like it; nor had anybody else in the village. It lasted barely ten minutes but the intensity of the downpour and the size of the hailstones astounded everybody. She has called on townsfolk not to walk under cornises (building overhanging structure) as some might have become weakened.

The local A&E at the medical centre collapsed because of the number calls patients coming in, making it impossible to attend to them all.

There was also a lot of damage to property, especially rooftiles and vehicles. The Town Hall will request that the municipality be declared a disaster area in order to receive funding.

(News: Bisbal d’Empordà, Girona, Cataluña)