Power returns to New York after blackout

By AAP Newswire

A wide swathe of New York's Manhattan borough has been plunged into darkness following a transformer explosion.

The incident knocked out power to subways, stores and Broadway theatres, but the city's main utility began restoring power several hours later.

Con Edison and New York officials say power has been restored to hundreds of thousands of customers. No deaths or injuries were reported due to the blackout.

Officials said it began at 6.47pm on Saturday, darkening a stretch of the city 42 years to the day from a major 1970s blackout that sparked rioting and looting.


The cause of the outage was unclear, McAvoy said, adding "it does not appear related to excessive load".

A Reuters witness in the area reported hearing an explosion around 7pm, and a fire department spokesman said firefighters were on the scene of a transformer fire.




New York has endured large-scale blackouts before, most recently following Superstorm Sandy in 2012 as well as the widespread 2003 blackout across the US Northeast that left most of the city without power for a day.
