Blackout hits most of ex-Soviet Georgia, news reports say

Aug 5 - A power cut plunged most of the former Soviet state of Georgia into darkness on Wednesday, an outage that may have been triggered by testing at a major hydroelectric plant, according to Russian media.

Russian news agencies said major cities including the capital, Tbilisi, in the South Caucasus country of about 3.7 million people lost electricity at about 8 p.m.

The agencies quoted an official from the commission overseeing the country's power and water utilities, Giorgi Pangani, as saying the incident coincided with tests at he hydroelectric station.

After two power outages last month, the tests were being performed to identify weak points in the country's power grid, Pangani said.

Pangani said the latest power cut was being investigated. REUTERS