A large part of Chile was struck by a power failure yesterday evening. The area affected extended to the full length of the country.

Around 80 percent of the 17million Chileans were left without electricity. Part of the telephone network was also down. Various metro stations and shopping centres were evacuated. Among the cities affected by the power failure were the capital Santiago and Concepción, which was heavily hit by the earthquake of 27 February.

The Chilean Ministry of Internal Affairs Rodrigo Hinzpeter says that the power failure has nothing to do with the quake, but was caused by a technical fault in a large transformer in the province of Bio Bio.