Nearly 200,000 electricity clients have lost power in Montreal after an issue with a Hydro-Québec transmission line.
The provincially owned electric utility says a protection mechanism was tripped on one of its high-voltage transmission lines just north of Montreal, triggering the widespread outage.
Spokesperson Caroline Des Rosiers says authorities are investigating what happened and aren’t ruling out high temperatures in southern Quebec as the cause.
She says the utility will be able to restore service soon and that affected clients should have power back by the end of the afternoon or early evening.
As of 4 p.m. about 218,000 clients were without power across the province, including more than 197,000 in Montreal.
Montréal—Trudeau International Airport says some of its operations are disrupted due to what it called a major electrical failure.
