Germany's parliamentary complex in Berlin suffered an electricity failure on Tuesday, with aides saying the outage - probably caused by a damaged supply cable - would last for hours. A parliamentary spokeswoman said the Reichstag Building, containing the main chamber and topped by a glass dome popular with tourists, as well as the nearby Bundestag office buildings, were hit.
Elevators, security doors and lighting were all affected, but the telephone system was still working. The spokeswoman said a cable failure under a nearby street had caused a main transformer to burn out.