Major power outage cripples Venezuela

Caracas: A major power outage hit most of Venezuela and darkened the capital for hours on Tuesday, prompting calls for calm as workers streamed through the streets of Caracas after the transport system ground to a halt.

Power was restored to most regions and Caracas by mid-evening, but thousands of workers walked home through the crime-ridden city after the metro train system shut down and traffic signals failed.

Drivers pounded their vehicles' horns in the main avenues, which were clogged with traffic as darkness fell. The presidential palace used backup generators to keep its power on.

The government said later that 85 per cent of Venezuela's energy supply had been restored, and that oil operations were unaffected, but gave confused accounts of the cause of the blackout.

The energy ministry blamed a forest fire that had burnt through a cable and the interior minister cited problems at a major hydro-electric dam.

Officials said full power services would be restored within hours across the crude-exporting nation and that the metro was up and running. "It happened at the moment of peak demand," said Hipolito Izquierdo, head of the country's electricity authority.