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A massive power cut has hit Argentina and Uruguay and is believed to have left 48million people without electricity.

The outage - thought to be the first of its kind - has caused trains to be halted and failures with traffic signalling, according to reports.

Major electricity supplier Edesur Argentina said in a tweet: "A massive failure in the electrical interconnection system left Argentina and Uruguay without power."

A spokesperson for the company, Alejandra Martínez, told Infobae: "Never has anything like this happened before."

The power cut, thought to have originated in Argentina, has also affected parts of Brazil and Paraguay, reports say.

It is believed to have happened at around midday (GMT), which is 7am local time, and to have affected 48million, the BBC reports.

The dramatic video above shows the power cutting out on a crowded train in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and it appears people were forced to get out and walk in the dark.

Initial investigations indicate the blackout could have been caused by an imbalance between supply and demand of energy, Infobae reports, and it is expected to last a few hours.

The Energy Secretary told them that "a collapse of the Argentine Interconnection System (SADI) produced a massive power outage throughout the country that also affected Uruguay".

This comes as people in parts of Argentina were preparing to head out to the polls for local elections.

Images of darkened streets have emerged online, with people still able to take to social media to report the incident.

One student tweeted that she was going to get up and study before the lights went out.

"How weird is this world," another wrote, commenting on the massive power cut, as another said: "I don't understand how something like this (could) happen."

Some of the affected provinces include Santa Fe, San Luis, Formosa, La Rioja, Chubut, Cordoba and Mendoza, reports said.

EPEC Cordoba, the Provincial Energy Company of Córdoba, tweeted: "At this time, work is being made to determine the reason for the failure and to be able to restore the supply in the shortest possible time."

UTE, the National Administration of Power Plants and Transmissions, tweeted: "At 7.06 a defect in the Argentine network affected the interconnected system leaving the entire national territory without service, as did several provinces of the neighboring country."

It added: "The system is already being lifted from scratch. There are already cities on the coast with service and work is still being carried out towards the general restoration."

The outage comes amid the Copa América football championship held in Brazil.