An electricity blackout caused by a failure at two substations near St. Petersburg affected most regions of Russia's second largest city, a spokesman for a local power grid said on Friday.
The blackout, which lasted for about an hour, brought buses and subway and commuter trains to a standstill.
Traffic lights were off on Nevsky Prospekt, the city's central avenue, causing traffic jams. Almost half of the city, which has a population of 4.5 million, was left without water supplies.
"Power supplies have been restored to all consumers," the spokesman said, adding that the causes of the incident were being investigated.
This is the largest blackout in Russia since May 2005 which affected Moscow and much of the surrounding region. That power outage left more than 150 hospitals without electricity and caused major disruptions to commuter traffic. About 4 million residents of the Moscow Region were affected.
ST. PETERSBURG, August 20 (RIA Novosti)
