Prague: Prague and northern regions of the Czech Republic were hit by a massive power outage on Friday, public broadcaster Radio Prague reported. A widespread power outage affected large parts of the capital and the northern regions following a failure at a substation.

According to Anadolu Agency, CEPS, the national grid operator, stated that the outage was triggered by a fallen phase conductor, which disrupted eight substations. Five of these substations were quickly restored. The blackout brought public transport across much of Prague to a standstill, and numerous shops and ATMs went offline. Energy analysts noted an abrupt 30% fall in the grid load.

“We are facing an extraordinary and unpleasant situation, and everyone is working intensively to restore electricity supplies. That is the priority now,” Petr Fiala, the prime minister, wrote on X. While power has been gradually restored, the national cybersecurity agency NUKIB ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack. “The current massive power outage in the Czech Republic, according to available information, should not have been caused by a cyberattack,” the agency wrote on X.