( AP ) - Electricity went out across a broad swath of the former Soviet republic of Georgia late Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 people stranded in halted subway trains in the capital and sending authorities scrambling to make repairs after what they said was a power-line accident.
The outage hit most of eastern Georgia, including the capital, Tbilisi, which was without power for about an an hour and a half. Energy Minister Nika Gilauri and the outage affected some 2.5 million people.
Two power lines were damaged in an accident caused by a technical problem, said Nino Dzheranashvili, spokesman for the state-run company responsible for power lines. Dzheranashvili said it wasn't clear what caused the accident, but that it was not the result of an attack.
Power outages and heating problems have plagued economically troubled Georgia since the 1991 Soviet collapse, and its citizens are accustomed to getting by.