Crane driver mistake cut power to one-third of Vietnam

A mistake by a crane operator caused a 10-hour blackout over about a third of Vietnam and parts of neighboring Cambodia, officials say. Vietnamese state electricity company EVN said in a statement that the blackout happened on Wednesday when he was in the process of lowering a a 10-meter-long tree into a garden when it struck the cable.

It hit the main north-south high voltage power transmission line. Electricity supplies in Ho Chi Minh City and in Phnom Penh were affected before power was restored on Thursday. About 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces were blacked out, officials say, and most of the south-east of the country was without power.

Officials say it was one of the worst power cuts in Vietnam's history. Vietnam provides Cambodia with about 40% of its national electricity supplies. Local media in Phnom Penh said that the entire length of the city's popular riverfront area lay in darkness, as crowded restaurants served tourists by candlelight and water supplies - that rely on electricity - began to dry up.

Correspondents say that the outage caused scores of garment and seafood factories to close and exposed the fragility of Vietnam's power grid. In addition there were heavy traffic jams in many other cities and towns as traffic lights failed. Vietnamese state-owned newspaper Thanh Nien reported that the incident cost EVN $700,000 (£465,000) in lost revenue.