Wolf Brigade
Members of the elite Interior Ministry force known as the Wolf Brigade celebrate with their commander Brig. Abu al-Walid, right, outside Adnan Palace in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, May 25, 2005 after meeting with Interior Minister Bayan Jabr who awarded them extra money and a medal for their recent operation against insurgents in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Members of the elite Interior Ministry force known as the Wolf Brigade leave a former palace of Saddam Hussein now called Adnan Palace in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, May 25, 2005 after meeting with Interior Minister Bayan Jabr who awarded them extra money and a medal for their recent operation against insurgents in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Members of Iraqi's elite Interior Ministry force known as the Wolf Brigade celebrate outside Adnan Palace in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, May 25, 2005 after meeting with Interior Minister Bayan Jabr who awarded them extra money and a medal for their recent operation against insurgents in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Members of the elite Interior Ministry force known as the Wolf Brigade leave a former palace of Saddam Hussein now called Adnan Palace in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, May 25, 2005 after meeting with Interior Minister Bayan Jabr who awarded them extra money and a medal for their recent operation against insurgents in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A Muscovite knocks at the closed doors of a Moscow metro station with a sign 'Sorry, Closed for technical reasons', May 25, 2005. Large parts of Moscow lost power May 25 2005 after a fire at a substation, causing a crisis that crippled transport and threatened mobile phone links in the sweltering Russian capital. President Putin blamed the management of Russian power monopoly Unified Energy Systems for a major power outage in Moscow. (Viktor Korotayev/Reuters)
Moscow hit by major power outage
A power cut has caused major disruption in the Russian capital, Moscow. Public transport services ground to a halt, Moscow's main stock exchange stopped trading and water supplies to homes were affected.
The electricity outage was caused by a fire and explosion at a substation, the energy minister told parliament.
It is not clear what caused the blast. About 20,000 commuters are reported to have been evacuated from underground trains stranded by the outage.
A transport police spokesman said emergency power supplies were used to bring trains into stations.
A police officer uses a loudspeaker to announce that half of Moscow's underground is not functioning because of a fire at one of Moscow power plants Wednesday, May 25, 2005. Electricity outages hit large sections of the Russian capital Wednesday, forcing many subway lines and trolleybuses to halt service. Magarita Nagoga, a spokeswoman for Unified Electricity Systems, the country's power grid, said the outages stemmed from a fire and explosion at a substation. (AP Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Areas up to 200km (120 miles) south of the city were also reported to be have been affected.
Duma deputy speaker Vladimir Pekhtin ruled out the possibility that the power outage was caused by sabotage. He told NTV Mir that it was more likely to have been caused by a technical incident.
"We are checking the information, but we can now rule out deliberate sabotage," he said.
Rising temperatures
A spokeswoman for electricity monopoly RAO UES said the problem stemmed from a fire.
"The problem started yesterday evening. The reason was a fire in the switching equipment at the Chagino substation," she told Reuters news agency.
"Staff dealt with the fire and overnight changed the equipment. However during peak consumption time this morning the problem recurred."
The Micex stock exchange stopped trading for two hours as many of its clients did not have power.
commuters wait for the underground to start working in Moscow on Wednesday, May 25, 2005. Electricity outages hit large sections of the Russian capital Wednesday, forcing many subway lines and trolleybuses to halt service. Magarita Nagoga, a spokeswoman for Unified Electricity Systems, the country's power grid, said the outages stemmed from a fire and explosion at a substation. (AP Photo/ Alexander Zemlianichenko)
There is some speculation that the power cut could have been due to an overload in demand as Moscow has seen unseasonably high temperatures and people have started using air conditioning.