Tokyo blackout leaves 350,000 houses without power

Tokyo, Oct 12: A fire at a power facility triggered a huge blackout on Wednesday in Tokyo, leaving 350,000 households and several government buildings without electricity and halting trains during rush hour. The Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is probing the cause of the fire while Tokyo authorities have ruled out a terror attack as the reason, EFE news reported. Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a cloud of black smoke rising from the TEPCO facility located in Niiza, north of Tokyo, from a fire that is said to have caused the outage, according to the company. The firefighting service detected an explosion before the fire. TEPCO said 350,000 houses across the city were affected by the power cut though the supply was resumed around two hours later. Many people trapped in elevators had to be rescued by firefighters and traffic sigls at several locations in the capital also stopped working. (IANS)