Venezuela hit by power failure

[ikaotiki]

Venezuela has suffered a power outage across large areas of the country.

The blackout on Tuesday left Caracas, the capital, without electricity for hours, and affected more than half of the country.

As transport systems halted, traffic jams escalated and people were unable to carry out their daily chores.

Calls for calm were made.

The outage started at about 4pm [2030GMT] affecting 13 of Venezuela's 24 states.

Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, the interior minister, said that power had returned to most regions by Tuesday night.

"There's no emergency," he said.

It was believed to have been caused by a forest fire that overheated power lines in the central state of Guarico, the energy ministry said.

The lines were near the Guri hydroelectric lines in eastern Venezuela.

This led to a chain reaction of power failure during peak consumption hours.

Thousands of people were forced to walk home through the crime-ridden capital.

Generators were used in the presidential palace and hospitals, and minor delays occurred at the national airport.

The country's oil industry was said to be unaffected.

Venezuela suffers small-scale power shortages at times in rural areas, but Caracas is usually unaffected.

Tuesday's blackout was the largest in the country for years.

Source: Agencies