san francisco power outage

SAN FRANCISCO -- Between 30,000 and 50,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers in San Francisco and the northern Peninsula lost power for several hours this afternoon after what witnesses described as an explosion under a manhole cover on Mission Street, the utility said.

Brian Swanson, a spokesman for the utility, said power failures were reported throughout wide swaths of the east side of San Francisco, including downtown and at PG&E's own office on Beale Street near the Ferry Building.

The outage first occurred at about 1:50 p.m., and electricity flickered on and off at least five times before power was restored at about 4 p.m.