Pakistan hit by nationwide power blackout

Pakistan hit by nationwide power blackout

Blackout in Pakistan

Pakistan was hit by a massive power blackout early Sunday -- with much of the country, including all major cities enveloped by a sheet of darkness.

The blackout was caused by a fault in southern Pakistan at 11:41 pm local time on Saturday (1841 GMT), power minister Omar Ayub Khan tweeted, citing preliminary reports.

"The fault tripped the transmission system of the country... leading to the shutdown of power plants," Khan said.

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The Ministry of Energy said that power had been restored in some parts of the country, and that teams were still working on restoring supply completely in the early hours of Sunday.

The blackout hit all of Pakistan's major cities, including the capital Islamabad, economic hub Karachi and the second-largest city Lahore.

Netblocks, which monitors internet outages said internet connectivity in the country "collapsed" as a result of the outage. Connectivity was at "62 percent of ordinary levels," it said in a tweet.

The electricity distribution system in the nation of more than 210 million people is designed in a way that a simple problem in one section of the grid can lead to cascading breakdowns countrywide.

(with inputs from agencies)