Large-scale power blackout in several Central Asian countries

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, three Central Asian countries, were suffering massive power cuts on Tuesday, AFP correspondents reported.

Much of Almaty, Kazakhstan's economic capital, was without power, as were the capitals of Uzbekistan, Tashent, and Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.

A spokesman for Kyrgyzstan's energy ministry told AFP that the outages were due to "an accident affecting the regional power grid."

Uzbekistan's energy ministry said in a statement released on Telegram that the blackout was due to an accident on Kazakhstan's grid.

"As a result of a major accident in the energy networks of the Republic of Kazakhstan, there was a blackout in the cities of Almaty, Shymkent, Taras, (in the regions of) Turkestan and adjacent areas," the statement said.

"The Uzbek power grid, which is connected to the Unified Power Grid, was damaged by an accident that triggered sudden voltage and frequency changes on 530 lines from Kazakhstan," it added.

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