Employee error triggers major power outage in Stuttgart, Germany

BERLIN

A brief but widespread power outage hit the southwestern German city of Stuttgart Thursday morning, causing severe disruptions to traffic and communications.

There were two outages during the morning - a shorter one around 8 am local time and a longer one around 10 am (0700GMT and 0900GMT), according to local media reports.

The power grid operator confirmed that a voltage drop in the high-voltage network lasted less than one second but caused significant disruptions across the city. A spokesperson for electricity provider Stuttgart Netze said there was a switching error due to an employee's mistake and ruled out any external interference as the cause.

The outage followed a far more serious blackout in Berlin on Jan. 3, when more than 100,000 people lost power. Stromnetz Berlin restored electricity to all customers only at the end of the fifth day.