A major power cut hit central Dundee on Tuesday, causing intermittent blackouts and forcing some shops, businesses and offices to close and evacuate shoppers and staff.
Those left out in the cold included swimmers at the Olympia Centre who had to flee the building before they had time to dress.
They were given heat-retaining foil blankets to wear as they stood outside waiting for power to be restored so they could return to the building.
The Tesco store in Riverside was also affected, along with the office blocks at Greenmarket and Riverside.
The problem was not confined to the waterfront, however, as the Overgate Centre also suffered a sudden loss of electricity.
Traffic lights and signals on South Marketgait were further casualties of the disruption, forcing motorists to take extra care negotiating junctions.
Passengers at Dundee railway station reported power cuts during the afternoon, but a spokesman for Network Rail said trains were not affected and continued running as normal.
Dundee City Council offices in City Square were affected by dips in power throughout the day, as were other major sites including TV studios as well as the Rep Theatre, which lost power and phone lines.
Some computers within Police Scotland Tayside Division offices in Bell Street were affected by the power cut, but the control room dealing with emergency calls from the public was unaffected as it operates on a different system.
Scottish Hydro Electric (SHE) confirmed a fault had been reported in an underground cable on the high voltage network, initially affecting 26 customers, including businesses, in the Riverside Drive area and Overgate at 3.35pm.
Engineers were rushed to the site and worked to restore the power, with only eight businesses in the Overgate left without power by 6pm, while the rest had been restored by 6.06pm.
A spokeswoman for SHE said the fault was still being investigated and she could not say if it was linked to the ongoing £1 billion central waterfront redevelopment.
She added: “We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience caused, and we will be looking into this to find out exactly why this occurred.”
Organisers of Dundee University’s Arts Cafe decided to cancel last night’s event for “safety reasons” due to the power cuts.