Bhubaneswar: Fishermen as well as tourists panicked when a massive waterspout formed over Odisha’s Chilika lake recently.

The waterspout appeared near Kalijai temple, located inside the lake, Friday afternoon.

The local fishermen as well as tourists and devotees retuning from Kalijai temple witnessed the waterspout that spiralled around 35 ft skyward over a radius of 5 ft, reports said.

Some tourists recorded the rare phenomena in their mobile phones. Footage of the elephant trunk-shaped waterspout went viral on social media.

According to the locals, the waterspout lasted for around 10 minutes before disappearing gradually.

Local fishermen, meanwhile, claimed that they had seen waterspouts in Chilika lake around five to seven years ago. Some fishing boats were damaged due to a waterspout in the lake in 2020, they said.

Notably, waterspout is a rotating column of air and mist that forms over a body of water, appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud.

Sometimes, waterspouts are powerful like tornadoes and can cause significant damage if they move ashore.