Large areas of the Netherlands have been left without electricity. The north of the country has been mainly affected, with the Dutch electricity network operator saying the outage has been caused by a power grid overload.

The capital Amsterdam has been hit, along with the area around Schiphol Airport. Twitter has reported that some hospitals in Amsterdam have been left without power, while the tram and metro networks are also not running in the capital. Thousands of people have been stuck on public transport because the doors will not open as they are controlled electronically.

The outage was caused due to a defect at a substation in Diemen, according to TenneT, the company which is responsible for supplying power in the Netherlands. Staff members are currently on site and are investigating the exact cause.

“Once we know the cause, we will be able to say how long it will take to get power supplies back on line,” a spokesman for the company said.

TenneT has stated that power has been restored to some parts of North Holland, however, significant parts of the region are still without electricity.