Falling tree blamed for leaving Italy in darkness

A MASSIVE blackout in Italy, which left millions of people without power, stranding planes and trains, and leading to traffic accidents was last night blamed on a tree.

Most of Italy and it's 57 million people were affected, with the exception of the island of Sardinia more than in North America's biggest blackout which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on August 14.

As in the North American blackout, the early hours of Italy's power outage were filled with confusion as to the cause and finger-pointing among neighbouring countries. Italy blamed France; France denied responsibility.