The trams were not running, the firemen were rescuing people from the elevators. Part of Prague was without electricity
Roughly a tenth of Prague was without electricity for 20 minutes on Sunday evening. The outage affected localities supplied by the Chodov substation, i.e. parts of Prague 2, 4 and 10. The cause was a balloon hitting the power line. Karel Hanzelka, spokesman for Pražská energetika (PRE), said this. Firefighters rescued people stuck in elevators, the outage also limited the operation of some tram lines.
“It was not a technical fault, but according to my information, the contact of the high voltage line with a foreign body,” said Hanzelka. “I have information that a larger fairground balloon flew into the line and it was automatically turned on,” he added. Deliveries were thus restored after 20 minutes. Hanzelka specified that it was not an excursion balloon with passengers.
“As a result of the power outage in the area of Prague 2, Prague 4 and Prague 10, we are registering an increased number of requests for the rescue of people stuck in the elevator,” the fire department wrote around 19:00 on twitter. Later, they said they helped 12 people from the elevators.
According to the organizer of Prague Integrated Transport (PID), the restriction in the operation of tram lines applies to the area from Nuslí to Strašnice.
Lines 4, 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 19, 22 and 26 were affected, PID said on twitter.