A monkey intrusion at a Sri Lankan electrical grid substation caused a nationwide blackout on Sunday, disrupting power supply across the island, government officials confirmed.
The outage began around 11:30 am local time (0600 GMT) and persisted for over three hours, with authorities working to restore full service.
Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody stated that the disruption was triggered when the monkey came into contact with a grid transformer, leading to an imbalance in the power system. The incident occurred in a southern suburb of Colombo.
"Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible," Jayakody told reporters. While electricity was restored in some areas, the timeline for complete restoration remained uncertain.
Sri Lanka has experienced severe power crises in recent years. In 2022, the country faced prolonged electricity blackouts amid an economic collapse, with fuel shortages forcing authorities to implement daily rationing of up to 13 hours.
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