Passengers were asked to de-board from the metro trains at some stations after technical faults, leaving hundreds of commuters stranded. Train services were also hit with around 100 trains affected.

The Met department attributed the storm to western disturbance over Pakistan. NCR areas of East Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad were most affected. The weatherman said similar weather conditions are likely to persist for the next two days.

"The meeting of cold air and hot air on the Indo-Gangetic plains causes low pressure area and also lot of instability. This results in severe thunderstorm," IMD Director General LS Rathore said.

The storm hit operations at the IGI airport as flying debris damaged five aircraft and forced the diversion of 24 planes to other nearby destinations.

Five aircraft -- two of SpiceJet, one each of Air India, GoAir and BlueDart -- suffered damaged after they were hit by some flying objects, airport sources said, adding a portion of the roof of Terminal 1D was also blown away. They said there was no report of any injury to any passenger or airline staff. The maximum temperature recorded in the Capital was 42.8 degree Celsius while the minimum was 29.1 degree. — Agencies