An explosion in a power sub station led to hundreds of people being evacuated from shops and businesses in Perth.
There were dramatic scenes around Perth Leisure Pool as around 50 swimmers were led from the building protected by thermal blankets.
The incident at around 3.35pm on Tuesday and left around 1,000 customers around the Glasgow Road area without power.
The explosion was in a sub-station to the rear of the leisure pool and two fire appliances attended, though it was left to SSE to deal with the incident.
A spokesman for Live Active Leisure, who operate the pool, said as far as they knew this was the first time the facility had required to be evacuated.
“It is just procedure the safety of our customers is paramount.”
Texts were sent to regular customers to alert them that the pool had closed.
Stretching from the Waverley Hotel junction up towards Glover Street, the outage also took in Gray Street and part of the St Catherine’s Retail Park.
The council offices on Glover Street, where councillors are based while their High Street headquarters is being renovated, was also affected. Traffic was also thrown into turmoil as traffic lights failed on the busy Glasgow Road, causing tailbacks. One Perth resident said: “I was in Pets at Home when all the lights went off and we had to leave. “We then made our way to the leisure centre where my daughter was due to have a swimming lesson only to find it was also affected. “People with silver blankets were being evacuated from the leisure centre but nobody really seemed to know what was going on. “We were just told to go home as they couldn’t say how long the power cut would last.” Another member of the public who was attending a careers fair in the Dewars Centre said: “I heard a bang and the power went off but people just carried on making the most of natural light.” Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said they were alerted at 3.35pm to a “small explosion” in the sub station. They attended but were not required, standing by until the arrival of SSE engineers. The lights went out at James Barclay Carpets and Furnishings Ltd on Glasgow Road though it was among the first to have power restored, around 40 minutes after the explosion. SSE said that by diverting power they were able to restore service to many of those affected within a short time, with the remainder of customers having power restored within a couple of hours.
Swimmers were evacuated from Perth Leisure Pool and shoppers at several stores were asked to leave the premises.
It is understood a faultin the sub-station behind the pool led to a small explosion and wiped out power.
Power started to be restored at 4.10pm, but Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) said supplies might not be fully restored until 7pm.
Many people still in swimwear were given blankets to keep warm after being moved from the leisure pool to the adjacent Dewars Centre.
One Perth resident said: “I was in Pets at Home when all the lights went off and we had to leave.
“We then made our way to the leisure centre where my daughter was due to have a swimming lesson only to find it was also affected.
“People with silver blankets were being evacuated from the leisure centre but nobody really seemed to know what was going on.
“We were just told to go home as they couldn’t say how long the powercut would last.”
City centre traffic lights also lost power.
Fire crews arrived at the scene shortly after 3.30pm and a probe into the circumstances surrounding the loss of power is under way.For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Courier.