Nearly 200,000 Montreal Hydro customers are without power after a transmission line problem

The Montreal skyline will be obscured by a haze of smog on June 25, 2023, as a smog warning is in effect for Montreal and multiple regions of the province due to wildfires. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

Almost 200,000 electricity customers are without power in Montreal after a problem with a Hydro-Québec transmission line.

The provincial-owned electric utility says a protection mechanism has been activated on one of its power lines just north of Montreal, causing the widespread outage.

Spokeswoman Caroline Des Rosiers says authorities are investigating what happened and are not ruling out high temperatures in southern Quebec as the cause.

She says the utility will be able to restore service quickly and affected customers should have power back by late afternoon or early evening.

As of 4 p.m., about 218,000 customers were without power province-wide, including more than 197,000 in Montreal.

Montréal-Trudeau International Airport says some of its operations have been disrupted due to what it called a major power outage.