An electricity blackout hit most of Russia's second city, St Petersburg, after a failure at a local sub-station today, power generator TGK-1 told reporters.
Traffic lights were not working in the city of 4.5 million, resulting in massive traffic jams as well as the switching off of water supplies, a Reuters witness said.
State television said the electricity was cut off at 6.40 pm (2.40pm Irish time). Local media said several forms of public transport had ground to a halt.
"The eastern sub-station is not working... There is no electricity in the centre of the city, the northern part and the northern suburbs," said a spokesman for TGK-1, where Finnish utility Fortum owns a 25 per cent stake.
Interfax news agency said city police had beefed up security across the city.
Russia's national power grid operator FSK said the St Petersburg nuclear power station was working normally.
Reuters