A nationwide power blackout hit Ecuador on Wednesday afternoon, plunging 17 million people into darkness. Authorities are working to repair a faulty transmission line that was responsible for the outage.

“The immediate report that we received from the CENACE (National Center of Energy Control) is that there is a failure in the transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection, so there is no energy service on a national scale,” Public Works Minister Roberto Luque wrote on X.

Luque added, “We are concentrating all our efforts on resolving the problem as quickly as possible.”

The blackout has paralyzed a major subway system in the South American country. There are reports that hospitals in major cities are without power. This comes months after Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa declared a power emergency and ordered eight-hour nationwide rationing due to lower hydroelectricity power generation levels. 

Internet tracking website NetBlocks reports that Ecuador’s national connectivity plunged to 44% shortly after the power outage. 

⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show a significant disruption to internet service across much of #Ecuador with national connectivity down to 44% of ordinary levels; the incident is attributed to a failure in the transmission line per CENACE 🔌#sinluz #apagón pic.twitter.com/HvPAv9UqEG

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) June 19, 2024

*Developing…