TRIPOLI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Protests erupted on Saturday evening in several areas of the Libyan capital over prolonged power outages.
Protesters blocked roads and set tires on fire in the Tripoli districts of Janzour, Tajoura, and Souq Al-Jumaa to protest recurring blackouts.
The electricity crisis has worsened as temperatures climbed to 50 degrees Celsius in recent days, according to Libya's National Center of Meteorology.
A senior official at the General Electricity Company of Libya told local media that the national power grid had lost around 1,350 megawatts of generating capacity since the crisis began in mid-July, after several power plants and transmission lines went out of service.
The company attributed the crisis to shortages of natural gas and fuel supplies, as well as technical and security-related factors that have undermined the stability of the power grid.
