Most residents had power restored by midnight but the situation remained unstable. President Gabriel Boric blamed power companies for not acting faster.

A large power outage struck vast swaths of Chile on Tuesday, interrupting mining operations in the world's biggest copper producer and leaving residents of Santiago without electricity. Areas from the mining-intensive north to the central and southern regions that are home to most of the population,

A sweeping power blackout has left most of Chile in darkness. Tuesday's blackout sent internet and phone services offline, paralyzed businesses and forced evacuations of tunnels and subways in the South American nation.