Nationwide blackout plunges Cuba into darkness

Cuba was racing Friday to restore electricity after the failure of the island's biggest power plant caused a nationwide blackout, coming on the heels of weeks of extended outages across the cash-strapped country.

The capital Havana came to a virtual standstill as schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and traffic lights stopped functioning.

The head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazara Guerra, said the process of restoring power to communist Cuba's 11 million inhabitants was in its early stages.

"Currently, we have some level of electricity generation" that will be used to start up power plants in several regions of the country, he added.

Guerra previously told state media that the power system had collapsed due to the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the biggest of the island's eight decrepit coal-fired power plants.

The blackout followed weeks of power outages, lasting up to 20 hours a day in some provinces, which prompted Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Thursday to declare an "energy emergency."

The government on Thursday suspended all non-essential public services in order to prioritize electricity supply to homes.

Schools across the country have now been closed until Monday. Authorities in Havana said hospitals and other essential facilities, which are powered by generators, would remain open.

"This is crazy," Eloy Fon, an 80-year-old retiree living in central Havana, told AFP.

"It shows the fragility of our electricity system... We have no reserves, there is nothing to sustain the country, we are living day-to-day."

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