NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - Cyprus woke up on Wednesday without electricity after a problem at one of the island's power plants resulted in the entire grid shutting down, officials said.
A generator at the Dhekelia power station was left running overnight to cover demand and malfunctioned, triggering a chain reaction of failures at other power stations, they said.
Crews are working to fix the problem and that power should gradually be restored soon, said Cyprus Electricity Authority spokesman Costas Gavrielides.
Power supply has already been restored in several areas of the capital Nicosia.
Officials said hospitals are operating on backup generators, as is the island's main international airport in Larnaca. Airport spokesman Adamos Aspris said power has been fully restored at the secondary airport in Paphos.
Police were out in force to regulate rush-hour traffic after the outage left traffic lights offline.
Cyprus experienced intermittent blackouts for weeks in the middle of summer last year after its main Vasiliko power station was severely damaged when a cache of seized Iranian munitions exploded at a nearby naval base.