The island nation, where temperatures are above 30°C in most places, suffered a blackout from 11:30 am (local time) onwards. The impact on places like hospitals and schools was not immediately known

Officials in Sri Lanka said a monkey in the wrong place at the wrong time was to blame for a power blackout that affected the entire nation.

Sri Lanka has grappled with a struggling energy grid for years, and monkeys are making it worse. On Sunday at around 11:00 local time (12:30 AM EST), a nationwide blackout forced its 22 million residents to either turn to personal generators,

No more monkeys jumping on the power grid! A countrywide power outage that left many stuck without cool air during a sweltering hot day in Sri Lanka has been blamed on a rogue monkey who climbed into a power station south of the capital Colombo.

A monkey caused a major power outage in Sri Lanka, leading to scheduled 90-minute power cuts due to a breakdown at the Norochcholai coal power plant.