(CNN) A breakdown in Pakistan's national power grid plunged the country of 212 million people into darkness on Saturday night, officials said. "A countrywide blackout has been caused by a sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system," Pakistan's Power Minister Omar Ayub Khan said on Twitter. This is Pakistan's most widespread power shutdown in the country since 2015. In a statement, the Ministry of Energy said that, according to an initial report , there had been a fault at the Guddu Thermal Power Plant in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, which had caused power plants across the country to shut down. In Karachi, witnesses reported seeing long queues at gas stations as people rushed to buy petrol for their home generators, which had been running overnight.

Source: CNN January 10, 2021 05:37 UTC