JAKARTA - At least 20,000 thousand people in Hong Kong experienced power cuts for two days, after a fire broke out at the bridge that also serves as a cable laying in Yeun Long Tuesday evening, affecting hospital services, trains and school closures.
The fire, which broke out at 7:10 p.m. local time, damaged three 132kV high-voltage cables that provide electricity to the Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai and Tuen Mun districts of the New Territories, operator CLP Power said.
Video circulating on social media showed a huge fire engulfing the cable-stayed bridge, producing columns of black smoke. The bridge then collapsed. There were no injuries in the incident.
About 160,000 customers in Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai and Tuen Mun, were initially affected, while MTR services in the area were briefly disrupted, reports CNA June 22.
Meanwhile, hospital authorities said services at some hospitals had been affected, with some patients may have to be transferred to other treatment facilities.
Power supplies to about 140,000 customers have been restored, following emergency power supply arrangements, CLP said. Electricity has also been restored to essential services, including hospitals and trains.
However, the Education Bureau said that 14 schools would suspend classes on Wednesday.
"Our engineering team is carrying out urgent repair work on site," said CLP Power.
Repair work is expected to take two days to restore power supply to the 20,000 affected customers, most of which are located in Tin Shui Wai, including Tin Ching Plantation, Tin Fu Court, Tin Yuet Plantation and Tin Chak Plantation, he added.
"We have been working closely with the relevant government departments to provide support for customers in need. We once again apologize for the inconvenience to the affected customers and would also like to thank the relevant government departments," he explained.
Separately, the Hong Kong government said in a statement on Wednesday it was "deeply concerned about the power line accident".
"We understand that this incident of power outage in this extremely hot weather has deeply affected the community, and we are deeply sorry for this," the statement said.
"We urge affected residents to be patient. CLP Power is making every effort to repair, with the aim of restoring power supply as soon as possible."
The government also said that the incident was contained, with Hong Kong's power grid and the overall power supply situation remaining normal.
"The government will ask CLP Power to investigate the incident in detail, find out the direction and cause of the accident, and submit a report to the Government, with a view to preventing similar incidents from happening again," the statement said.
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