Some 150,000 people in the city of Tomsk in Siberia were left without electricity for several hours after a huge explosion rocked a substation. The moment of the blast was caught on camera.
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon, when a fire at the Vostochnaya substation resulted in a blast, local TV2 reported. The substation has been operating since 1963, providing power supply “for most of Tomsk.”
Facilities were partially destroyed, which led to a temporary shutdown of the Tomsk power station, Russia's Ministry of Energy said.
The moment of the explosion was captured by a local resident on his smartphone. In the footage, a fire is first visible at the station, which then apparently causes a blast. There have been unconfirmed reports that oil-filled transformers exploded.
No one was reportedly hurt in the incident.
Several districts in the city suffered from a following blackout. A couple of hours later, emergency services restored the power supply.
An investigative commission is working at the site to establish the cause of the incident.