Black Friday blackout in central London hits thousands of shoppers

Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street left without power following failure.

Parts of central London have been plunged into darkness as the capital was hit with a power cut at around 18:00hrs on 25 November, aka. Black Friday. Shops, restaurants and bars in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown are among the parts of London without lights following the power failure.

A UK Power Networks spokesperson said engineers were on their way to the site and expected to have power restored within two hours.

They added the failure may also be affected the Tube services.

The power cut emerged as thousands of shoppers hit central London to take advantage of the Black Friday discounts.

The whole of Soho is literally in darkness! #blackout #soho pic.twitter.com/aWp6eJZHTP
— Elena Kritikos (@shystelle) November 25, 2016

Outside the palace theatre waiting for the Harry Potter play, power cut and police directing traffic! #blackfriday #london #powercut pic.twitter.com/29mMqMLIWt
— Mark (@venousdegree) November 25, 2016

No traffic lights #London #powercut #Westend #soho pic.twitter.com/S64E5f2DEk
— Chopas's Life (@Chopas15) November 25, 2016

Central London power cut is zone specific - some streets have power. pic.twitter.com/FdOIJBGKaK
— Byron, game designer (@xiotex) November 25, 2016

Literally #Blackfriday!!! Power cut in Chinatown, Soho and Piccadilly. Happy Thanksgiving. Let's be thankful for this rare experience ðŸ˜† pic.twitter.com/WwK6Ih0k17
— Simon (@SimLi13) November 25, 2016

#BlackFriday has an all new meaningâ€¦.Piccadilly Circus in complete darkness due to power cut!! pic.twitter.com/nzrtolPImF
— âDan Banks (@cfcdbanks) November 25, 2016

Huge power cut in Soho! This is Berwick Street. ðŸ˜³ Black Friday indeed! #lovelondon pic.twitter.com/CAOmSgCUiZ
— Ari Gurdon (@arigurdon) November 25, 2016

I guess #Piccadilly Circus took Black Friday a bit too seriously. Power cut, tourists are panicking cause they can't take a photo. pic.twitter.com/iXEWl0dDP1
— Barnabas Csukas (@Barnus08) November 25, 2016

Power cut means half of Frith Street is completely shut down tonight. Spooky seeing London in pure darkness #soho pic.twitter.com/sVupi53sDA
— Kirsty Murray (@kirsty297) November 25, 2016

Wow. Huge power cut in Leicester Square and Chinatown... Completely dark. Freaky. pic.twitter.com/nicarUQI6k
— Dylan Beattie ðŸ‡ªðŸ‡º (@dylanbeattie) November 25, 2016

Black Friday