Sri Lanka hit by nationwide power cut

Sri Lanka has been hit by a nationwide power cut, with buildings including hospitals having to rely on generators to supply electricity.

The outage, which began around 11:30 local time (06:00 GMT), is yet to be fully fixed.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said the power cut had been caused by an emergency at a sub-station and it was working to restore supply.

Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody has reportedly blamed a monkey for causing the outage, saying the animal came into "contact with our grid transformer causing an imbalance in the system", according to the AFP news agency.

"Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible," the minister said.

The CEB said "we are making every effort to restore the island-wide power failure as soon as possible".

Hospitals and businesses across the island nation of 22 million people have been using generators or inverters.

Sri Lanka experienced widespread blackouts during its economic crisis in 2022.