Most residents had power restored by midnight but the situation remained unstable. President Gabriel Boric blamed power companies for not acting faster.

Electricity providers across Chile scrambled to restore service Tuesday after a sweeping blackout plunged 90% of the country into darkness, stranding commuters, knocking cell service offline and paralyzing businesses and daily life.

"We were like sardines in the dark," one passenger described the moment their underground train stalled. Many of those who had been in lifts inside the stations when the power cut happened had to be freed by firefighters. One woman in her 70s was trapped in a lift between two floors in a building in Santiago.