Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that the country's Central Crisis Staff had been put on alert and that emergency services were swamped with calls, many related to people stranded in elevators.

Public Services Disrupted Across City
All three metro lines in Prague were shut down immediately, although limited service resumed on the B line by midafternoon; tram service was also disrupted, and traffic lights throughout the city were blacked out, frustrating motorists.

What's more, card payments at several shops and restaurants were temporarily disrupted, and many bank machines went offline, throwing a wrench into the day-to-day lives of residents and tourists alike.

Czech national grid operator ÄŒEPS said a part of its transmission system was "without voltage" and it was looking into the cause of the disruption.

Outage Extends Beyond Prague
The blackout affected more than just the capital. There were also reports of power outages in cities in the Liberec, Ústí nad Labem, Pardubice and Olomouc regions. Officials are scrambling to restore the full grid and determine what caused the enormous failure.

No injuries were reported, but the incident exposed weaknesses in national infrastructure and raised questions about the stability of the grid in the region.