A power station on the British protectorate of Gibraltar exploded Easter Sunday and knocked out power throughout the territory and caused a number of global online gambling sites to go dark.
Officials said a generator at Waterport Power Station caught fire and exploded due to a mechanical failure. No one has been blamed for the incident, according to reports, and officials have said foul play has been ruled out. No one was injured in the fire.
The fire interrupted Gibtelecom services and affected companies such as Betfred, Ladbrokes, Stan James, William Hill and bwin.party, which all experienced service interruptions.
William Hill officials said their sites were down for about two and a half hours and some of its offices had to be evacuated during the fire.
“It is just one of those freak events nobody could have predicted,” spokesman Graham Sharpe told AFP.
Ladbrokes also was affected.
“We apologize to the customers who were affected by the loss of some of those services on Sunday afternoon and have been working hard and successfully to restore these,” Ladbrokes said in a statement.
