Istanbul goes dark as Turkey hit by worst power cut in 15 years

Istanbul hit by worst power cut in 15 years. Image by Moyan Brenn / CC BY 2.0

Turkey’s three largest cities were shut down yesterday by a nationwide electricity cut that caused chaos, closing public transport and leaving millions of people in darkness for several hours. The incident was of such magnitude that the government has not ruled out the possibility of it being caused by a terrorist or cyber attack. The metro systems in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir were among the public facilities struck down, though services were back up and running again within hours, and failed traffic lights caused huge traffic jams. Forty-nine of Turkey’s 81 provinces have been hit, stretching from the northwestern Greek border to the southeast corners near Iran and Iraq. Power was restored to 80% of Istanbul within hours but the public has been warned it will take longer to bring the whole country back online. Read more: theguardian.com