Thousands of customers affected by outage

HALIFAX – Part of downtown Halifax was evacuated as a precaution Thursday evening and part of the city was without power for a couple of hours. Halifax fire officials say the area along Barrington street involved a city block of mostly commercial buildings.

Nova Scotia Power says some 8,600 customers were without electricity for a time, but power was restored to most by 8 p.m. The utility says underground equipment on Barrington Street was damaged but it’s not known how it happened. CP/Saltwire Network