Power outage plunges Manhattan in New York into darkness

The Upper West Side of the Manhattan borough of New York is dark after a transformer fire caused a power outage and left businesses without electricity, elevators stuck and subway cars stalled.

 Billboards in New York's famous Times Square
were without power during Saturday's outage. Photo: AP

The outage comes on the anniversary of the 1977 New York City outage that left most of the city without power.

ABC News reported on Saturday that subway stations plunged into darkness and the billboards of Times Square suddenly flicked off as New York’s Manhattan was hit by a power outage.

Authorities say a transformer fire caused the power outage and left businesses without electricity, elevators stuck and subway cars stalled.

About 42,000 customers lost electricity in the early evening, according to the Con Edison utility.

On social media, dozens of users posted photos of subway stations bathed in darkness.

“While Con Edison works to restore power in Manhattan, we encourage everyone to avoid below-ground subway stations,” New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Twitter.

Firefighters said they were responding to numerous requests for help, particularly from people trapped in elevators.

The cut affected the western chunk of Manhattan, particularly the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and the theaters of Broadway.

Many Broadway musicals and plays cancelled their Saturday evening shows.

Several cast members from the show put on an impromptu performance in the street outside the theater for disappointed audience members.

Some shows like Frozen were among the Broadway shows to announce it had cancelled performances.