19,000,000 people left without electricity after entire country hit by blackout

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About 19 million people are believed to be without power after a countrywide power outage has struck Chile.

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Although the exact extent of the outage is still unknown, the world's biggest copper mine, Escondida, has been left without electricity, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

LATAM Airlines has also said that a number of flights have been disrupted by the blackout, and has advised travellers to check their journey status.

The National Electrical Coordinator, the agency responsible for running Chile's power grid, said the blackout was caused by a break in the transmission system in the Norte Chico region.

It's estimated that 80 point one per cent of customers were left in the dark.

In a post on X, Home Affairs Minister, Carolina Tohá said an emergency meet-up had been arranged with the Disaster Risk Management Committees to handle the issue.

‘Considering the power outage affecting the areas of Arica and Parinacota and Los Lagos, I've requested an urgent meeting of the National #Cogrid [Disaster Risk Management Committees], where we'll discuss and implement measures to handle the crisis and work on getting the service back up and running,’ she said.

Streetlights in the capital city of Santiago have gone dark due to the blackout, and witnesses claim to have heard emergency sirens blaring through the streets as authorities respond to the power outage.

‘There's nothing. There's no dosh. No loot. Nothing,’ said Jose Luis Orlandini, who was having a feed in the city centre of Santiago when the cut happened.

Other footage from around the country showed passengers evacuating train stations by walking up stopped escalators, while traffic signals were also shown to be not operating.

There were also long queues for buses that were still operating on the city's roads.

Maria Angelica Roman, 45, said to the AFP news agency: ‘They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don't know how we'll get home because all the buses are full.’

Toha said that power should start coming back online over the next few hours.

‘We're hoping that what we've been told will come to fruition, that we'll have power back on in the next few hours,’ she said. ‘And if that doesn't pan out, we'll have to explore alternative options.’

The Antofagasta copper mining company said it was running its mines on a backup power generator.

The power outage left a number of people stranded on a roller coaster at Fantasilandia, an amusement park in Santiago, just as the ride was about to start its descent down the tracks.

The park's management informed CNN Chile that backup power generators were activated in order to restore power and remove unwanted customers.

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