Nova Scotia Power says a power outage on Thursday afternoon that affected thousands of customers in downtown and south-end Halifax was caused by a seagull.

Beverley Ware, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Power, told CBC News a bird hit two lines at the same time and knocked out power to 2,341 customers.

The seagull died just outside the old Medical Arts Building at 5880 Spring Garden Rd.

The outage affected residents and business on South Street between Lower Water Street and Tower Road, College Street, Carleton Street and the west end of Spring Garden Road between Summer Street and Robie Street.

Edward Street and adjacent streets were also affected, the utility said.