A power failure caused a massive blackout Sunday afternoon in east Georgia, including the capital city of Tbilisi, Russian news agencies reported.

The power outage, caused by failures of high-voltage power lines, hit both residential areas and key facilities in Tbilisi at2:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT), the Interfax news agency reported.

The power grid was then switched to reserve power and resumed power supplies an hour later to key facilities, including television stations, the subway system and hospitals, Interfax quoted a spokesman of Georgia's power utility as saying.

Power supplies to other areas of Tbilisi and the rest of Georgia are expected to resume within hours, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted energy officials as saying.

Source: Xinhua