Dhaka: The celebrations of Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year, started in the morning amid a festive mood with lots of arrangements.

Thousands of people from all walks of life from every part of the city thronged Dhaka University, Ramna Park and Suhrawardy Udyan areas to celebrate the day.

The day was sunny and hot till 4:00pm on Saturday with people sweating and there was no sign of cloud in the sky. Many programmes were running in full swing. But around 4:30pm, the weather started to change and a nor’wester coupled with hailstorm started to lash the capital.

The outdoor revellers got drenched by the rain. They started running for safety and many took shelter in TSC, DU Library, DUCSU cafeteria, Arts Building and Social Science Building where they got stranded.

The rain continued till 7:00pm and many arrangements ended up due to the bad weather.

Though the DU authorities earlier announced that the visitors who are not the students of the university would have to leave the campus by 6pm, many of them could not do so for rain.

As the rain stopped at 7:00pm, visitors managed to get out of the area and left for their residences.