Sydney hit by massive blackout

The blackout struck at about 4.30pm, leaving dozens of office workers trapped in lifts and shutting down traffic lights at about 100 city-centre intersections.

Tens of thousands of homes in the east of Sydney were also hit by the blackout.

The power outage plunged the city into chaos as office workers attempted to make their way home.

Two major arterial roads, including the Sydney Harbour tunnel, were closed to traffic, and the city streets quickly became gridlocked.

Police flooded into the CBD to direct traffic and the emergency services responded to at least 40 calls from people stuck in lifts or relating to automatic fire alarms.

The train system, which runs on a separate power supply, kept running, but the Opera House was forced to cancel its performances for the evening.

Energy Australia said the blackout was caused by a fault that affected four high voltage cables. Power started returning to the city after about three hours.

The unfolding drama played out on micro-blogging site Twitter, with hundreds of people affected by the outage “tweeting” about their experiences http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Sydney+blackout.

Some joked that the residents of Sydney were being punished for not switching off enough lights during Earth Hour on Saturday.

Travel man http://twitter.com/ttravelman said: “Will have to work tonight fixing computer stuff related to the Sydney CBD Blackout”, while Simon Willis http://twitter.com/Simon_Willis remarked: “ sydney she loves a drama. choppers, alarms, fire brigage, ambulance. Just love it. Wish the blackout lasted all night and storms rolled in.”