A nationwide blackout left millions across Sri Lanka to rely on generators for energy, including hospitals.
The cause of the blackout has been attributed to a monkey that broke into a sub-station in the south of the country’s capital, Colombo.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, officials from the Ceylon Electricity Board said an emergency had occurred at the substation but gave no further comment.
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However, Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody eventually told reporters about the culprit behind the mass outage.
“A monkey has come in contact with our grid transformer, causing an imbalance in the system,” he said.
“Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible”.
Power restoration was gradual and priority was given to medical facilities and water purification plants according to the BBC.
The nationwide blackout is nothing new to residents of the island nation of 22 million people.
In 2022, the country experienced frequent power outages when it was plunged into an economic crisis and had to reduce electricity usage to 13 hours a day.