India, Dec. 21 -- San Francisco was brought to a near standstill on Saturday after a major power outage plunged large parts of the city into darkness for several hours, disrupting transport, shutting businesses and snarling traffic during one of the busiest holiday shopping weekends of the year.

The outage, which began shortly after 1 pm, affected around 130,000 homes and businesses across the city of more than 800,000 people, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Company. City officials said the blackout was triggered by a fire at a PG&E substation near 8th and Mission streets, which caused extensive damage and led to cascading power failures across multiple neighbourhoods.

PG&E said the damage from the substation fire was "significant...