An intruding monkey at a Sri Lankan electrical grid sub-station caused a general island-wide blackout on Sunday, government officials said.

The power outage, which began around 11:30am (0600 GMT), had yet to be fully restored after three hours.

“A monkey has come in contact with our grid transformer causing an imbalance in the system,” Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody told reporters.

The intrusion took place in a south Colombo suburb, he said.

While power was restored in some areas, it was not immediately clear how much longer the outage would last.

“Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Sri Lankans had to endure months electricity blackouts in the summer of 2022 when the country plunged into an economic crisis.

Fuel stations ran out of petrol and diesel, forcing thermal power stations to ration electricity to 13 hours each day.

Sri Lanka had defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance the import of food, fuel, medicines and other essentials.

The unprecedented economic meltdown forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, secured a $2.9bn bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Sri Lanka’s new President Dissanayake, who defeated Wickremesinghe in elections last September, is maintaining the tough austerity measures introduced under his predecessor’s administration and has vowed to continue the four-year IMF bailout programme.

Dissanayake’s government concluded a long-delayed debt restructuring with both bilateral and private creditors late last year, ending Sri Lanka’s status as a bankrupt nation.