St. Petersburg left with no electricity after breakdown

Russia's second city St. Petersburg experienced a blackout on Friday evening, leaving parts of the city without lights and stalling public transport.

Luckily, quite soon, the situation has resumed back to normal in all seven districts affected.

Around half the city was plunged into darkenss by the power cut which caused chaos on the roads, disrupted metro services and affected the water supply. Three railway stations stopped operating – including connections to Moscow and Helsinki.

A breakdown at one of the city's electricity stations is being blamed for the incident. Reportedly, the blackout was caused by a worn-out power cable which turned out tot be too old to to cope with a sudden voltage drop.

The 40-minute power outage is estimated to have cost the city more than $3 million.