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Entrance of the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz: On Saturday, there will be a standstill here
Photo: Tim Würz / dpa
Traffic lights without lights, no getting through on the phone: There was a large-scale power outage in Mainz on Saturday. Around 12 o'clock, numerous people were left without electricity. According to Mainzer Netze, the city center, parts of Hartenberg-Münchfeld, the upper town, Bretzenheim and Mombach were affected. It was initially unclear how many people were temporarily without power. The university medical center was also affected.
University Hospital no longer accepts new patients
As a precautionary measure, the Mainz University Medical Center initially did not admit any further patients on Saturday. Although the power supply was restored in most areas in the afternoon, the clinic's website still states: "As a precautionary measure, we are currently not admitting any more patients. However, we anticipate that no transfers to other hospitals will be necessary."
Critical areas such as operating rooms and intensive care units were secured via an emergency power supply during the power outage, as reported by the dpa news agency. Since then, various systems such as laboratory diagnostics and imaging have been gradually reviewed and successively restarted.
A cable fault as the cause of the power failure?
About half an hour after the power outage, individual areas in the city area were gradually switched back on, the Mainz networks announced. In the old town it took a little longer. Here, the power supply was restored except for two small areas around 14:20 p.m.
Meanwhile, the search for the cause is ongoing. In a statement in the afternoon, the Mainzer Netze wrote: "The exact cause is currently still unknown, presumably the supply interruption was triggered by a cable fault."
lhi/dpa