A power surge has affected underground electrical cables in Glasgow city centre, sparking reports of a “mini explosion”.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport said the situation “resulted in a power surge affecting signalling” on the city’s subway and warned of delays to services.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene in Buchanan Street on Tuesday morning after reports of a “bang” from a drain in the street.
An area in Buchanan Street at its junction with St Vincent Place was cordoned off.
A spokeswoman for the service said: “We received a report of a bang coming from a drain in Buchanan Street.
“We requested ScottishPower. It was some electrical cables which ScottishPower have isolated.”
Twitter users described the incident as a “mini explosion”.
Missed an mini explosion on Buchanan Street by about 5m! Nobody seems worried so guessing it's a gas pipe #glasgow pic.twitter.com/yq1U7Ca6EO
— Nick Kewney (@nkew) May 17, 2016
Nick Kewney tweeted: “Missed a mini explosion on Buchanan Street by about 5m! Nobody seems worried so guessing it’s a gas pipe.”
Police Scotland said there were reports of a power cut in the area and smoke coming from a drain.
The fire service said no fire had to be dealt with and the incident had been passed on to Scottish Power.
A ScottishPower spokesman said the incident happened shortly after 8am and all 115 properties which suffered power cuts in the area were reconnected by 9.25am.
He added: “We apologise for any inconvenience. We will now work to repair the cable fault.
“There was no evidence of any explosion. A bang was heard but the fault occurred several feet underground.”
