Update : Manhattan, from Midtown south, remains in darkness. The following 'before' and 'after' images show the extent of the blackout...

I took the second picture yesterday. There’s a difference of 24 hours and 27 minutes based on the camera roll time stamps. #blackout #NYCblackout Manhattan pic.twitter.com/xV0jXtCRs4 — Aziz Musa (@AzizJM) July 14, 2019

And all those billionaires are stuck in their penthouses...

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Exactly 42 years after a massive blackout caused by a lightning strike at an electrical substation plunged New York City into darkness for 25 hours (with looters raiding 1,600 stores and over a thousand fires set across the city)...

Yeah. Today is the anniversary of the 1977 Blackout which resulted in much looting around the city. That was just 1 part of a crazy year in NYC. What are the chances that 42 years later, half of Manhattan goes out of power. pic.twitter.com/u4VJ8n3zYz — [insert (ง'̀-'́)ง] (@JOrtega95) July 14, 2019

Manhattan is tonight in darkness as a widespread power outage has disrupted traffic lights, plunging several subway stations, businesses and tourist centers all across Midtown and Upper West Side into darkness as night falls.

Source: Live outages

Several subway stations are blacked out...

Many people have reportedly been stuck in the elevators across the city’s high-rises.

The iconic giant monitors at the Times Square are also pitch black, with half of the area affected.

The cause of the power cuts has yet to be determined. ComEd utility company has so far only acknowledged that it was “responding to extensive outages,” providing no further details.

BLACKOUT: New York authorities say a power shortage has left businesses without electricity, elevators stuck and subway cars stalled in parts of Manhattan's midtown and Upper West Side neighborhoods #blackout pic.twitter.com/JS9P7pVCqh — TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) July 14, 2019

Bars and restaurants are still open... so there's that!

In yet another crazy coincidence, tonight is Manhattan-henge...

And the people gazed West and raised their hands to worship the sun #Manhattanhenge @discovering_NYC pic.twitter.com/6b1Xbqmsqm — Khai (@ThamKhaiMeng) July 14, 2019

Some reports suggested a transformer fire and explosion could have caused to blackout as several witnesses hears a loud bang before the area went dark...