A fire at a power station in Puerto Rico has left much of the island in darkness and some 1.5mn people without electricity.
Officials at the US territory’s government-run energy company said the blackout, which hit mid-afternoon on Wednesday, could last 24 hours or longer.
It occurred after a fire at the Aguirre power plant run by Puerto Rico’s Electrical Energy Authority (AEE.)
At a press conference on Wednesday Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla called the blackout “a major event that will take many hours” to fix, according to the daily El Nuevo Dia.
Padilla said schools and government offices may also be forced to remain closed if the outage persists.
The power cut has forced businesses across the United States territory, home to some 3.7mn people, to temporarily shutter.
Since many of Puerto Rico’s water plants run on electricity, the blackout also has affected the water supply in some areas, news reports there said.