MOSCOW (AP) — Widespread power outages were reported on Tuesday in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Interfax news agency said that a significant number of the 2 million residents of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, found themselves without electricity on Tuesday. Kazakh news site Orda.kz reported that outages also occurred in the southern region of Turkistan, particularly in the city of Shymkent, and in Taraz, a city in the neighboring Jambyl region.
Massive power outages also hit Kyrgyzstan — primarily the capital, Bishkek, and the northern Chuy region, Interfax reported, citing the country’s Ministry of Energy and a local electricity provider.
The loss of power in Uzbekistan, reported by its Ministry of Energy, brought the subway to a halt in the capital, Tashkent. Police in the city also warned about failures of stop lights.
According to media reports, the Tashkent airport temporarily stopped accepting flights.
It wasn’t immediately clear what exactly caused the outages. Uzbek officials blamed a power line failure in Kazakhstan. The three former Soviet nations are part of one power system that was designed in Soviet times.
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