London has been hit by a major power cut, with thousands of properties and businesses left without electricity.
The disruption began around 10.30am, plunging offices across the City of London into darkness.
UK Power Networks said an underground electricity cable fault caused the outage, affecting 32 postcodes across the capital.
The affected areas include parts of east and north London, as well as the City and areas around Islington, Hackney and Westminster.
In a statement, UK Power Networks said it had restored power to customers around the capital.
“We apologise for the inconvenience after a fault developed on our underground network in the Shoreditch area at 10.30am today.
“Power supplies were interrupted to several thousand properties and our engineers worked as quickly as is safely possible to reroute electricity to those affected, in stages, until 11.08am when all were back on supply,” they told GB News.
A TFL spokesman told the People’s Channel the outage affected some traffic signals and CCTV in Hackney.
A power cut has plunged London into chaos
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However, they confirmed there had been no traffic impact.
Commuters had been left in chaos at Liverpool Street, the UK’s busiest train station, with blank information boards.
Images shared on social media showed confused travellers left milling around the station.
Great Northern, which connects the capital to Cambridge, Peterborough and other locations, notified commuters that some platforms had been left without any lights.
UK Power Networks said an underground electricity cable fault caused the outage
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“Due to power cut affecting the platform lighting at Essex Road, services will not be stopping at this station,” they wrote on X.
“You will need to travel via Old Street or Highbury & Islington to complete your journey and allow extra time to arrive at your destination.”
The full list of affected postcodes were: E1 5, E1 6, E1 7, E2 0, E2 8, E2 9, E5 0, E8 1, E8 2, E8 3, E8 4, E9 5, E9 6, E9 7, EC2A 2, EC2A 3, EC2A 4, EC2M 3, EC2M 4, EC3A 7, IG3 8, N1 0, N1 1, N1 2, N1 3, N1 4, N1 5, N1 7, N1 8, N5 2, NW8 7, W2 3.
Engineers had been rushed to local substations to analyse the network and restore power to London.
One office worker at Finsbury Square near Moorgate shared their experience of the “eerie” incident.
“All power went off, including all the lights and TVs and Wi-Fi.
“It was incredibly eerie and silent, and we could see through the glass atrium that all the floors in the building had lost power,” they told The London Standard.
A worker at a pharmacy in the affected area also reported that the business had lost power, which could leave some patients without their prescriptions.