THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 24: Fish rained down on the Indian village of Manna last week, startling locals who hailed the phenomenon as a miracle. In an echo of the Bible’s manna from heaven, fish up to 55 millimetres long plummeted to earth for 15 minutes in the remote village in the southern state of Kerala.

“I saw fish falling from the sky. At first, we could not believe our eyes,” said shopkeeper V.K. Satheeshan.

Residents quickly collected the fish, with some gathering them in jars. “When I rushed to the spot, I found lots of small fishes on the road. Some of the shopkeepers collected fishes in jars,” said M. Rajeevan, a local journalist from Manna.

The pencil-thin fish were likely lifted into the sky from rivers by a waterspout, or mini-tornado, according to professor Godfrey Louis of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.—AFP