It’s not every day that you see octopuses, starfish and prawns literally raining down from the sky, but that’s exactly what happened Wednesday in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, after strong winds sucked the marine creatures from the sea.

On Wednesday, the seaside city of Qingdao, in China’s Shandong province, was hit by a severe storm that brought down trees and large sign posts, flooded the streets and brought traffic to a stand-still. But there was a particular phenomenon that captured the attention of motorists in the city during Wednesday’s storm – various sea creatures started falling from the sky.

Photo: Weibo

Incredible pictures posted on China’s microblogging platform Weibo show octopuses flying through the air, and starfish, shrimp and various shellfish fallen on people’s windshields. The photos were shared by China’s national weather agency and “seafood rain” became a trending topic on the popular social network.

Photo: Weibo

Meteorologists said that the creatures must have been sucked from the sea by a waterspout and blown all the way to shore by the strong winds.

Photo: Weibo

Interestingly, this is not the first thing that this phenomenon has been observed. As early as last year, fish rained from the sky in the Mexican town of Tampico, and a veritable downpour of fish was reported in the Indian city of Kerala, in 2008.

via Insight (Korean)