Chile power outage leaves millions without electricity

Millions of people are thought to be without electricity across Chile after a large nationwide power outage.

According to the national service for disaster prevention and response (SENAPRED), an area spanning most of the country is impacted, including the capital city, Santiago.

The exact scale of the outage, which began earlier on Tuesday, is not yet known but SENAPRED has said it covers the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.

Reuters news agency has also reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, is without power, citing a source close to the matter.

In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.

Footage from the city showed passengers evacuating stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.

There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.

Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full.”

Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Toha, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss ongoing measures to restore services.

SENAPRED added that electricity companies across the impacted area were investigating the fault and attempting to restart services.