A careless move of a truck deployed to plant trees in New Binh Duong City urban area is the direct cause for the massive power outage in the southern region of Vietnam.

When moving a tree on Wednesday afternoon, the truck let the tree bumped onto a line in the national power grid, causing the massive outage in 22 provinces and cities in the southern part of Vietnam, said the Electricity of Vietnam group (EVN).

At around 1:40 pm, the top of a 10-meter tree collided with the 500 KV transmission line when being moved from a nearby garden by truck driver Le Tan Thao from Thuan An District.

The collision, which caused a loud bang, immediately cut the 500 KV Di Linh - Tan Dinh transmission line which provides electricity for all the 22 provinces and cities, Trinh Dinh Chinh, deputy director of the Mien Dong Power Transmission department, told newswire Vnexpress.

“After the collision, I subconsciously jumped out of the vehicle but was also stunned for a long time,” Thao told the newswire, adding that the tires of the truck may be blown up by the electric current transmission.

The collision between the vehicle and the transmission line caused a domino effect to all related power transmission lines in all the provinces and cities in the southern part of the country from the central provinces of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, said Dang Hoang An, Deputy General Director of EVN, on the Government website.

The outage, estimated at around 9,400 MW, would only be recovered within the next 6-8 hours. It is expected that all related cities and provinces will have power back by late evening, said the EVN website.

By 3:54pm, EVN put into operation back 500kV north - south line and gradually restored the power network.

In HCMC, by 3:00 pm, some areas in HCMC, such as Binh Thanh District and District 1,had some power back. O Mon Thermal Power Plant in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho and Ca Mau thermal complex already began to generate electricity by late afternoon.