Excessive power cuts affected several areas of Attica on Wednesday, causing chaos on the roads as traffic lights went out as well as disrupting parts of the capital's subway system.
According to reports, there was an explosion at the PPC substations in Pallini around 2 p.m. The blackout was caused by a malfunction which has a capacity of 150 kilovolts.
A passenger at Athens Syntagma metro station said there was an announcement over the public address system that power was down and customers were advised to leave. Line 2 of the Athens Metro (Anthoupoli-Ellinikon) was completely out of operation from Panapiestimiou (University) to Elliniko, including Line 3 and the tram network.
Furthermore, there was chaos on the roads as many traffic lights were out of order causing delays and traffic jams, and the fire department said it received more than 100 calls to free people trapped in elevators.
Later this afternoon, the Environment and Energy Ministry said power has been restored in half the areas of the Greek capital affected by the blackout earlier on Wednesday, while the rest of the grid will be back in operation in the next couple of hours.
According to ekathimerini, Power grid operator ADMIE said the power cut started at 2.12 p.m. and work is underway to restore the system before the later afternoon. The company did not specify when the issue will be resolved.
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