Sri Lanka suffers major power outage

Sri Lanka suffered a power outage across large parts of the island on Friday, local media reported, as state power workers scrambled to get a key transmission line operational.

The blackout occurred two days after engineers at state-run Ceylon Electricity Board began a work-to-rule protest over the government's plans to sell a 40% stake in a power plant to New Fortress Energy Inc from the United States.

“The outage is due to the failure of a key transmission line,” CEB spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena told Reuters. “The CEB is working to restore power as soon as possible. It is too early to say whether the outage was countrywide.”

Jayawardena declined to comment on what caused the transmission line failure or when power could be restored.