Government orders investigation after more than 620 million people across 20 states were left without power

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

India's top electricity official says power has been restored across the country after a major system collapse led to the worst blackout in history.

An estimated 620 million people were without power after India's northern, eastern and north-eastern grids failed on Tuesday.

Electricity workers struggled throughout the day to get power back to the 20 affected states. They restored most of the system in the hours after the crash.

The energy minister, Veerappa Moily, told reporters on Wednesday that power had been fully restored.

The government has ordered an investigation into what caused the crisis.

Moily said he did not want to point fingers. Other officials said the crisis might have been caused by states drawing too much power from the grid but some analysts dismissed that explanation.