Massive power cut plunges Argentina into dark for hours / Photo: © AFP
-
Demi Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes
-
Sinner withdraws from Cincinnati Open with knee injury
-
Iraola's first Anfield match as Liverpool manager ends in Monaco defeat
-
Fernandez's 'perfect' race earns him British MotoGP Grand Prix win
-
Bodies hanging from bridge revive violence in once-calm town in Mexico
-
Iran Guards say won't reopen Hormuz without US meeting Tehran's demands
-
Lionel Messi bids farewell to father who guided his glittering career
-
Hogh's hat-trick inspires Celtic to 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock
-
Raul Fernandez wins British MotoGP Grand Prix
-
London grants first licences for supervised Uber robotaxis
-
Tesla FSD secrecy puts Europe’s safety oversight under scrutiny
-
Erasmus hopeful Kolisi hamstring injury not 'too bad'
-
Mercedes-AMG GT 53 balances speed, range and daily usability
-
Luxury car buyers trade prestige for mainstream value
-
Lion queen Werro focused on Euro medal, not 800m world record
-
Students, teachers mourn girl killed in Thailand school shooting
-
Changan uses FILDA 2026 to accelerate its African expansion
-
Jacobson to lead New Zealand for first time against Sharks
-
Honda plots a profitable European comeback without a price war
-
Typhoon Dolphin makes landfall in China after flight cancellations, evacuations
-
Iran Guards say won't reopen Hormuz without US meeting all Tehran's conditions
-
South Korea FA apologises after sex scandal adds to controversies
-
Messi absent after father's death as Miami lose in Leagues Cup
-
Indonesia closes national park as wildfire spreads
-
Flight cancellations, evacuations in China as Typhoon Dolphin looms
-
ZXMoto leads China's charge to dominate the global motorbike market
-
Iran issues demands for reopening of Hormuz
-
Top-ranked Sabalenka, Pegula stunned in Toronto fourth round
-
Afghanistan's gold rush upends lives and landscapes
-
Japan nuclear debate unnerves proponents of pacifism
-
Messi missing after father's death as Miami lose in Leagues Cup
-
Spanish teen Jodar ousts eighth seed Lehecka at Montreal
-
World number one Sabalenka ousted in Toronto by Alexandrova
-
Angers mounts in US over vast network of car license plate cams
-
Olympic weightlifter hoists debris for Venezuela earthquake recovery
-
Darderi to face Nakashima in Montreal quarter-finals
-
FIFA condemns 'concerted and ongoing effort' to weaken Infantino
-
Espresso power fires Darderi past Borges in Montreal
-
South Africa win after surviving late Argentina surge
-
Shnaider upsets Pegula to book Toronto quarter-final with Swiatek
-
Man Utd boss Carrick being 'careful' with Mount as Man Utd draw with PSG
-
Mount injury overshadows Man Utd draw with Paris Saint-Germain
Massive power cut plunges Argentina into dark for hours
A major power outage crippled several of Argentina's provinces on Wednesday, including parts of Buenos Aires, plunging millions of people into darkness for at least two hours as summer temperatures soared, officials said.
In the capital, the lights flickered back on at about 6:00 pm (2100 GMT) in the metro system, and public services were gradually restored.
Reports of the first outages came in from 4:00-5:00 pm, with traffic lights out of order and Buenos Aires metro stations in total darkness.
Argentina's undersecretary for energy Santiago Yanotti told the C5N network that power demand had soared due to the high temperatures. In Buenos Aires, it was 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
The power cut is believed to have been caused by a fire in a field near high-tension lines connected to the Atucha 1 nuclear power plant, Yanotti said.
The plant was taken offline as a safety precaution, sparking the widespread problems nationwide, the country's national nuclear power authority Nucleoelectrica said.
There was no immediate official data on the numbers of households affected, but a government source told AFP that Cordoba, Santa Fe and Mendoza provinces along with Buenos Aires experienced outages.
M.Furrer--BTB
