Chaos after blackout

Massive power outage: State of emergency in Chile

The Ministry of the Interior announced that it was deploying armed forces throughout the country to maintain order.(Bild: AFP/JAVIER TORRES)

Large parts of Chile lost power on Tuesday. The government declared a state of emergency and a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am. Santiago was practically in the dark. Emergency vehicle sirens blared throughout the city. 

The widespread blackout was caused by the failure of a transmission line in the north of the country.

• Hours after the outage, the power supply was partially restored in some parts of the capital Santiago and in the coastal towns of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
• The power outage affected areas from the north, with its mining industry, to the central and southern regions, where the majority of the Andean country's population lives.

• Production was interrupted in large copper mines in the north of the country. According to an insider, the world's largest copper mine, Escondida, also lost power.

The Ministry of the Interior announced that it was deploying armed forces throughout the country to maintain order.(Bild: AFP/JAVIER TORRES)

(Bild: AFP/JAVIER TORRES)

"There is no cash. No money. Nothing."
The capital and largest city in Chile, Santiago, was practically in the dark. Emergency vehicle sirens blared throughout the city. The subway, which carries millions of passengers, was down. Passengers had to be evacuated to safety from the broken-down trains. "There is nothing. There is no cash. No money. Nothing," said a local resident. 

Cause of the power outage unclear
The head of Chile's National Electricity Coordinator (CEN), Ernesto Huber, said that there was still no timetable for restoring the power supply throughout the country. However, the power supply had gradually been restored in areas in the north and south. The cause of the power outage - or why the transmission line failed - is still being investigated.