Thousands hit by powercut 27/9/14
Some 10,000 homes and businesses in the north west of Scotland were left without electricity due to a powercut today (Sat).
The outage began just after 2pm and resulted in many shops closing as shoppers were left in the dark and electronic tills could not work.
Diesel power stations in the Western Isles were later fired up to provide a temporary supply to islanders.
But around 5,500 properties on Skye and the west Highlands are still without power this afternoon.
Utility firm SSE says it hopes to restore supplies tonight.
The cause of the power cut is unknown but is suspected to be a fault on the network in Skye.
A SSE spokesperson said: “Engineers are working hard as possible to get everyone back on.”