An error by a utility worker caused a massive power outage across Los Angeles Monday, snarling traffic and raising fears of a terrorist attack which proved to be unfounded.
A spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says power has been restored to most homes and businesses in the city.
He says the power failure was caused when an employee accidentally cut a power cable, which caused three of the city's generating stations to shut down.
The blackout came a day after a member of al-Qaida was shown threatening attacks on Los Angeles and Australia, raising fears the terrorist group had attacked the city's power grid.
The outage was reminiscent of a chain reaction power grid failure in 2003 that began in the U.S. state of Ohio, leaving 50 million people across the U-S Northeast in the dark.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP, AFP.