Tokyo, August 14 :

A blackout in most of Tokyo and its surrounding areas left about 800,000 households without power and disrupted transportation services during rush hour today morning, said a police official.

Over 260 traffic lights across Tokyo went out and people were reported trapped in elevators in the city’s busy Shinjuku district, the fire department said.

The outage was caused by a crane hitting high-voltage power lines over a river in the capital, the Tokyo Electric Power Co said. As the blackout began about 7.40 am (1040 GMT), some train services were suspended, but trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was not disturbed by the power outage.

Power was restored to most of the affected areas by 9:30 am, Tokyo Electric Power Co said.