Parts of Manhattan have suffered a widespread blackout, which affected traffic lights, subway stations, businesses, and tourist attractions all across Midtown and Upper West Side.

As many as 60,000 households and businesses were left without power in New York around 7:00pm on Saturday as utility company Con Edison struggled with “extensive outages” from 5th Avenue to the Hudson River, and from the West 40s to 72nd Street.

It took more than five hours to restore power to the majority of customers.

When the city suddenly went dark, many people were trapped inside elevators across the city’s high-rises for hours, with firefighters struggling to rescue them.

Blackout in Upper West Side New York City near Lincoln center. My block and adjacent blocks are all out of power, fire trucks are on the scene pic.twitter.com/MNMUhS2cCs — The May Queen (@itsbergamot) July 13, 2019

The giant monitors at Times Square also went pitch black, while Jennifer Lopez was forced to call off her concert at Madison Square Garden.

The blackout was caused by a transformer fire at West 64th Street and West End Avenue, which caused a power surge and knocked out five more ConEdison substations.

#BREAKING: Blackout reported in many areas of Manhattan, New York. Subway stations and may high rise buildings are running on emergency backup power. Reports of an explosion are also coming in. Updates to follow. #newyork#blackout#poweroutagepic.twitter.com/g3Y8zTIyN3 — Tribunal Report ⚖ (@TribunalReport) July 13, 2019

As nighttime fell, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo assured the public that the authorities were doing their best to maintain order and ensure safety.

ConEdison now showing new power outages down to 34th st, which is close to where Madison Square Garden is pic.twitter.com/BKRgUKcmjF — Steve Lookner (@lookner) July 14, 2019

“While fortunately, no injuries occurred as a result of this incident, the fact that it happened at all is unacceptable,” Cuomo said. “Until the recovery is complete, we will continue to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety and security of New Yorkers.”

The power went out during several of our broadcasts, luckily backup generator kicked in. But a good swath of Manhattan is without electricity. pic.twitter.com/ATKTUSb5w4 — kendis gibson (@kendisgibson) July 13, 2019

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

FYI today is the 42nd anniversary of a New York City wise blackout and Times Square currently looks like this https://t.co/y0RH9VHyQR#nycpoweroutage#NYCblackoutpic.twitter.com/ekBpCsWX4Z — ashlee dell. (@ashleedell) July 14, 2019

I happen to live 50 feet downtown from the dividing line between power and no power. Starting out looking downtown and east — NYT building -> 42nd St -> the blackout FKA Times Square pic.twitter.com/AG3ZS3iLQF — peter (@peterlauer) July 14, 2019

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