A boy jumps from a bull into a stream to beat the heat in New Delhi yesterday. The maximum temperature in the capital touched around 43.7 degrees Celsius, the meteorological department said.

IANS/New Delhi

A sudden squall yesterday evening took Delhiites by surprise disrupting road, rail and air traffic as well as Metro services and led to nine deaths in the national capital.

The dust storm accompanied by heavy showers led to a drop in the soaring temperature but not before it left in its wake broken tree branches, overturned cars and power outage.

Nine people, including a woman, were killed in separate incidents.

While an 18-year-old woman was killed after an overhead power line fell on her in the Najafgarh area in west Delhi, a 20-year-old youth was killed when his throat was slashed after a tin sheet fell on him in Vivek Vihar in east Delhi.

A 24-year-old cab driver was crushed to death when a tree fell on his car in IP Estate area in central Delhi. The squall led to huge traffic jams across the capital, especially in Shahadra (east Delhi), Punjabi Bagh and Uttam Nagar (West) and Burari (North) besides many parts of south Delhi.

Over a dozen people were injured in separate incidents.

Five aircraft parked at IGI terminal were damaged in the squall, while 21 flights, including four international, were diverted.

Delhi Metro services were hit on two of its busiest lines: Yellow line from Jahangirpuri in Delhi to HUDA city centre in Gurgaon and the Blue line from Dwarka Sector 21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali.

Passengers were asked to de-board from the metro trains at some stations after technical faults caused by the storm hit services, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded.

Train services were also hit with around 100 trains affected. Power supply in many areas of the national capital were affected.