A monkey has been blamed for inflicting a nationwide blackout in Sri Lanka.
The island nation’s 22 million residents had been largely left with out energy throughout the outage, which started round 11am native time (5.30am GMT) on Sunday.
The nation’s power minister, Kumara Jayakody, informed reporters that the blackout was prompted when a monkey got here into contact with a grid transformer close to the island’s govt and judicial capital, Colombo.
“A monkey has come in contact with our grid transformer, causing an imbalance in the system,” Mr Jayakody stated following the blackout.
“Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible,” he added.
Energy was returned to some areas inside hours, however many households had been with out electrical energy till late on Sunday.
Sri Lanka has suffered points with its electrical system earlier than. In 2022 it skilled widespread blackouts and electrical energy rationing throughout an financial disaster.
The paper stated engineers had been warning consecutive governments to improve the system or face frequent blackouts “for years”.
“The national power grid is in such a weakened state that frequent islandwide power outages may be expected if there is a disturbance even in one of our lines,” a supply informed the outlet.