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Nationwide power cut paralyses Turkey

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A massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across Turkey on Tuesday, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.

The nationwide power cut, the worst in 15 years, began shortly after 10:30 am (0730 GMT) in Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkey Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) as saying.

It was confirmed to have hit 49 of the country's 81 provinces, from the Greek border to those in the southeast neighbouring Iran and Iraq, and including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Power was only fully restored across the country late in the evening, with the authorities still at a loss to explain the cause of the crisis.

"Every possibility, including a terrorist attack, is being investigated," said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after the magnitude of the outage became clear.

Turkish men try to start a generator on March 31  2015 in Istanbul after a massive power cut caused ...
Turkish men try to start a generator on March 31, 2015 in Istanbul after a massive power cut caused chaos in large parts of the country
Ozan Kose, AFP

He said a crisis cell has been established at the energy ministry to handle situation, which occurred as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was out of the country on a visit to Slovakia.

- 'Possible cyber-attack' -

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz also said the authorities were investigating whether the power outage was due to a technical failure or a "cyber-attack."

"The most important thing for us is to bring the system back to life. This is not something we frequently experience," said Yildiz, who was travelling with Erdogan.

He later sought to calm tensions, saying power had been restored throughout Turkey and an investigation launched into the cause.

"It is too early to say now if it is because of a technical reason, a manipulation, a foulplay, an operational mistake, or a cyber (attack). We are looking into it... We cannot say they are excluded possibilities."

A student works in a dark room on March 31  2015  in Diyarbakir  Turkey after a massive power cut ca...
A student works in a dark room on March 31, 2015, in Diyarbakir, Turkey after a massive power cut caused chaos in large parts of the country
Ilyas Akengin, AFP

The energy ministry was quoted as saying by Turkish media that a power cut on this scale had not been seen in 15 years.

The blackout trapped people in elevators while the metro systems in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir all stopped working for several hours.

Rescue teams rushed to subway stations to evacuate stranded travellers and bring them to ground level.

Traffic lights also were not working in several spots in Istanbul and Ankara, causing huge traffic jams, with officers taking to the streets in an attempt to break the logjams.

The Marmaray metro line which goes underneath the Bosphorus in Istanbul also went down while high speed train services from Ankara were also halted.

Around three hours after the power cut struck Istanbul, the metro, tramway and the Marmaray underground system came back on line and resumed operations.

Metro systems in Ankara  Istanbul (pictured) and Izmir all stopped working for several hours after a...
Metro systems in Ankara, Istanbul (pictured) and Izmir all stopped working for several hours after a massive power outage
Ozan Kose, AFP

In the heavily industrialised city of Izmit, near Istanbul, the cuts prevented many factories and workshops from functioning.

- 'No electricity here' -

There were conflicting initial reports about the cause of the outage, but Turkish grid operator TEIAS said it resulted from a severing of power lines between Europe and Turkey, and warned it could take hours before electricity is restored.

The Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey, however, claimed that it occurred because some private power suppliers had refused to sell electricity due to low prices.

The DHA news agency said almost all provinces in Turkey were affected, except Van province in the east which imports electricity from neighbouring Iran.

Conspiracy theories did the rounds on the Internet, with the situation the top trend under the hashtag #BuradaElektrikYok (There is no electricity here).

Yildiz denied there was any link to the hostage drama in Istanbul where a radical leftists took a prosecutor hostage at a courthouse.

The cut came at a particularly tense period in Turkey ahead of June 7 legislative elections and with Erdogan increasingly polarising society.

The government is seeking to make peace with Kurdish militants while also dealing with the advance of Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria up to the Turkish border.

A massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across Turkey on Tuesday, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.

The nationwide power cut, the worst in 15 years, began shortly after 10:30 am (0730 GMT) in Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkey Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) as saying.

It was confirmed to have hit 49 of the country’s 81 provinces, from the Greek border to those in the southeast neighbouring Iran and Iraq, and including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Power was only fully restored across the country late in the evening, with the authorities still at a loss to explain the cause of the crisis.

“Every possibility, including a terrorist attack, is being investigated,” said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after the magnitude of the outage became clear.

Turkish men try to start a generator on March 31  2015 in Istanbul after a massive power cut caused ...

Turkish men try to start a generator on March 31, 2015 in Istanbul after a massive power cut caused chaos in large parts of the country
Ozan Kose, AFP

He said a crisis cell has been established at the energy ministry to handle situation, which occurred as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was out of the country on a visit to Slovakia.

– ‘Possible cyber-attack’ –

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz also said the authorities were investigating whether the power outage was due to a technical failure or a “cyber-attack.”

“The most important thing for us is to bring the system back to life. This is not something we frequently experience,” said Yildiz, who was travelling with Erdogan.

He later sought to calm tensions, saying power had been restored throughout Turkey and an investigation launched into the cause.

“It is too early to say now if it is because of a technical reason, a manipulation, a foulplay, an operational mistake, or a cyber (attack). We are looking into it… We cannot say they are excluded possibilities.”

A student works in a dark room on March 31  2015  in Diyarbakir  Turkey after a massive power cut ca...

A student works in a dark room on March 31, 2015, in Diyarbakir, Turkey after a massive power cut caused chaos in large parts of the country
Ilyas Akengin, AFP

The energy ministry was quoted as saying by Turkish media that a power cut on this scale had not been seen in 15 years.

The blackout trapped people in elevators while the metro systems in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir all stopped working for several hours.

Rescue teams rushed to subway stations to evacuate stranded travellers and bring them to ground level.

Traffic lights also were not working in several spots in Istanbul and Ankara, causing huge traffic jams, with officers taking to the streets in an attempt to break the logjams.

The Marmaray metro line which goes underneath the Bosphorus in Istanbul also went down while high speed train services from Ankara were also halted.

Around three hours after the power cut struck Istanbul, the metro, tramway and the Marmaray underground system came back on line and resumed operations.

Metro systems in Ankara  Istanbul (pictured) and Izmir all stopped working for several hours after a...

Metro systems in Ankara, Istanbul (pictured) and Izmir all stopped working for several hours after a massive power outage
Ozan Kose, AFP

In the heavily industrialised city of Izmit, near Istanbul, the cuts prevented many factories and workshops from functioning.

– ‘No electricity here’ –

There were conflicting initial reports about the cause of the outage, but Turkish grid operator TEIAS said it resulted from a severing of power lines between Europe and Turkey, and warned it could take hours before electricity is restored.

The Chamber of Electrical Engineers of Turkey, however, claimed that it occurred because some private power suppliers had refused to sell electricity due to low prices.

The DHA news agency said almost all provinces in Turkey were affected, except Van province in the east which imports electricity from neighbouring Iran.

Conspiracy theories did the rounds on the Internet, with the situation the top trend under the hashtag #BuradaElektrikYok (There is no electricity here).

Yildiz denied there was any link to the hostage drama in Istanbul where a radical leftists took a prosecutor hostage at a courthouse.

The cut came at a particularly tense period in Turkey ahead of June 7 legislative elections and with Erdogan increasingly polarising society.

The government is seeking to make peace with Kurdish militants while also dealing with the advance of Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria up to the Turkish border.

AFP
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With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

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