The South American country is facing an unusual and massive blackout that forced the evacuation of the Santiago subway, amid widespread confusion among the population.

A power outage affecting 99% of Chile and two Argentine provinces has left millions of people without electricity on Tuesday, the causes of which are still unknown and in the midst of a strong heat wave.

The National Electric Coordinator's office reported that at 3:16 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT) there was an interruption in the power supply from Arica to the Los Lagos region, caused by a disconnection of the 500 kV transmission system in the Norte Chico.

Authorities immediately activated the Service Recovery Plan to restore consumption in the shortest possible time.

They also pointed out that the causes of this power outage will be investigated and analyzed in accordance with the protocol established for this type of contingency, having informed the relevant authority of its occurrence.

Possible causes

The Presidency also reported that the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, is at the Operational Management Center of the Carabineros of Chile monitoring the emergency.

Moments earlier, the Interior Ministry announced that a special session had been called to analyse the causes, which could be related to forest fires or even possible sabotage.

In Santiago de Chile, banks, shops and shopping centres have closed and there is traffic chaos due to power failures at traffic lights and the interruption of the suburban metro.

According to EFE , the emergency meeting at the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) is attended by the ministers of the majority of the Cabinet, such as the Interior, Energy, Health, Public Works, Environment, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Carabineros, firefighters and the Investigative Police.