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.

Eventually, it emerged that a chain reaction that started in Switzerland and moved through France caused the blackout in Italy, which imports most of its electrical power.

In Switzerland, a falling tree disabled a power transmission line which caused another line to overload. At about the same time, two French high-voltage lines failed a problem caused by lightning during heavy storms in the southeast, Italian energy officials said.

"After that, all connections to Italy dropped out," said Rolf Schmid, spokesman for the Swiss power company Atel.

At the Vatican, the blackout left St Peter's Basilica normally lit up overnight in darkness. When Pope John Paul II delivered his weekly address, the Vatican had to amplify his remarks with a backup generator, while journalists huddled with candles and flashlights in the Holy See press office.

Electricity returned to much of the north by mid-morning and to most of Rome, though erratically, around noon. Parts of the south were still without power.

Hospitals used generators to keep crucial equipment running, emergency centres were flooded with calls, and traffic accidents occurred as drivers zoomed toward intersections without traffic lights. Airports turned on generators to light up runways, though many flights were delayed and a few cancelled.

Some 110 trains were stopped across the nation with 30,000 passengers on board, and hundreds of people were stranded during an all-night festival in Rome that kept museums and restaurants open around the clock.

The city had encouraged Romans and tourists to use public transport, but many stranded travellers ended up sleeping in the out-of-service subway stations.

Many cities were tormented by the din of burglar alarms tripped by the power cuts.

Power also went out for about three hours in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier in the night. Austria, Slovenia and Croatia Italy's neighbours to the north and east reported no problems.

In Italy, politicians acknowledged the domestic energy system was insufficient making the country too reliant on imported power. Premier Silvio Berlusconi was closely following events, spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti said.

Concern over possible damage to the environment has slowed new plant construction. Also, national demand has shot up in recent years, prompting energy officials to warn of possible blackouts.

Italy was hit with partial power cuts in June, when people overloaded the system with air conditioners. That was the first time in more than 20 years that the national operator of the electrical grid ordered power cuts.