Electrocuted rat causes central Stockholm power outage

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: The electrocution of a fat rat in an electric station Saturday caused a three-hour power outage in Stockholm’s central train station.

The early morning outage led to some delays in train traffic, since the rat’s 11,000 voltage blowout led to a blackout in the station and halted elevators and escalators, Jesper Ekenlund, a spokesman for power company Fortum said.


Nearby hotels and shops were also effected, he said.

“The rat had sneaked into a secondary substation and came into contact with some parts that caused it to short circuit,” he said.

“It must have been really big because there’s a certain distance between the parts it touched.”

AP