Georgia was hit by a nationwide blackout early on Friday. The country’s state-owned electricity operator said power was being restored in stages.

The cause of the outage, which occurred at around 00:10 local time (20:10 GMT, Thursday), was still being investigated, the Georgian State Electrosystem said in a statement.

Hans Gutbrod, a researcher based in Georgia, shared photos of the blackout in Tbilisi on X. 

Electricity supply in Georgia's capital Tbilisi and the city of Kutaisi had been partially restored, as well as in parts of Chiatura, Sachkere, Oni and Ambrolauri, the electricity operator added.

Power had returned to the Tbilisi districts of Didube, Vake, Mtatsminda and Krtsanisi, the company said. 

The blackout also hit Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia. Abkhazia’s Ministry of Energy later reported the complete restoration of electricity on its Telegram channel.

Marika Mikiashvili, a researcher based in Tbilisi, wrote on X at 00:24 local time (20:24 GMT, Thursday) that there was a sudden blackout.

“Even the famous Tbilisi TV tower is off,” she wrote.

Levan Meonia, Director of the Enguri Hydroelectric Power Plant, which supplies the country of 3.9 million with a third of its energy, was reported by Georgian broadcaster TV Pirveli as saying he didn’t know what the cause of the electricity failure was.

"I'm trying to figure it out,” he said, TV Pirveli reported.

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