Strong winds, heavy rain and hailstorms hit parts of western and central Serbia late on Wednesday, causing damage to homes, business and institutions.

In Belgrade, the storm brought the traffic to a standstill, while the roof of the Faculty of Musical Arts collapsed.

The huge hail-bearing cloud, accompanied with strong wind, moved toward the capital city from the south-western areas of the country, where power outages were reported as the storm damaged the grid, ripped out trees and collapsed roofs.

20 liters of rain fell in Belgrade per square meter, while elsewhere in Serbia radar stations fought the storm by firing over 200 anti-hail rockets into the cloud that they said measured 17 kilometers in height.

But central and western Serbian farmlands still reported great damage to the crops, while in the town of Sabac 30 trees were ripped out by the wind.

In the western town of Valjevo, the wind speed reached 100 kilometers per hour, damaging homes, destroying orchards, and also polluting local wells. Many local roads are blocked this morning with fallen trees.

The Belgrade-Bar railroad was also blocked for a while last night.

In the nearby town of Lajkovac, the health care center lost its roof in the storm.

A regional emergency center will meet today to decide how to help those affected by the storm.