Millions of Brazilians hit by power outage during morning rush hour

Millions of Brazilians were hit by a power outage this morning local time, causing traffic chaos in a number of cities. Some metro trains also stopped during the morning rush hour, including in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, news website G1 reported. According to the site, power outages of varying duration affected all but one of Brazil’s states. The cause of the blackout is under investigation.

The power outage in Brazil began at around 08:30 local time (13:30 CEST), affecting large areas in the north and northeast of the country. Brief outages were recorded elsewhere, according to government authorities. Electricity supplies were restored in many affected areas in less than an hour, the EFE news agency reported.

Website G1 reported that electricity supply problems were recorded today in 25 of Brazil’s 26 states and in the Federal District, home to the capital Brasília.

The outage brought some metro lines to a halt this morning in cities with populations of several million, including Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Sao Paulo. In Salvador, for example, some passengers had to get off metro trains and walk along the tracks to reach a station.

In some cities, traffic was disrupted by traffic lights that were out of operation.