HUGE hailstones that look like the coronavirus have been branded "a sign from God to stay at home" in Mexico.
Locals shared images of the icy oddity on social media this week, commenting on the curious formation of the hailstones which they compared to the deadly virus.
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The particles of coronavirus in humans are usually spherical and typically have big crown-like spikes.
And similarly shaped balls of ice were reported in the municipality of Montemorelos, located in the Northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.
One social media user Darlene posted: "Yesterday coronavirus hailstone, God sent it to our home to remind us to stay put."
Another, CM Móni, commented: "Is this a subliminal message from our creator?"
Experts played down fears that the hailstones were a message from the almighty.
According to the meteorologist and consultant of the World Meteorologist Organisation (WMO), Jose Miguel Vinas, the peculiar shape of the hailstone is actually a frequent occurrence.
Miguel Vinas told local media: "Inside a storm, a hailstone will start off as a small spherical form and accumulate layers of ice on top.
"During very strong storms when the hailstone are already quite big and smash together, many of them fuse together, smashing together and squashing each other, forming spikes of ice.
"So what is falling is a squashed disks of ice, smashed into that shape by a violent blow or the fusing of different sized hailstones, which results in this star shape."
According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Mexico has registered 51,633 cases of COVID-19 and 5,332 related deaths.
Around the world, nearly five million people are believed to have been infected while the global death count stands at 323,000.
The virus-shaped hailstones come less than a month after officials confirmed a new record for the world's largest hailstone.
A lump of ice the size of a football was said to have dropped on Argentina.
In other news, you could soon test yourself for Covid-19 by coughing onto your smartphone.
Misleading coronavirus clips are spreading like wildfire on YouTube, experts have warned.
And, Instagram has revealed "memorial accounts" for dead users as the coronavirus death toll soars globally.
What do you think of the strange hailstones? Let us know in the comments!
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