Electricity supply has reportedly been cut across the whole of Syria

Thomson Reuters

Syrian state media said on Thursday the electricity network was down across the whole of the country for unknown reasons and that Internet connections were also partly down.

"The electricity network has been cut in all governorates," state news agency SANA said, reporting a source in the Ministry for Electricity.

"Attempts to find out the cause of the outage have begun."

A Reuters witness confirmed that electricity had been cut in Damascus, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that power had been cut in the "vast majority of governorates".

SANA reported the Syria Telecommunications Company as saying Internet services were partially halted "as a result of sudden damage to one of the network hubs and repair teams have been sent to fix it".

Blackouts have become common for Syrians as fighting has raged throughout the country over the last five years, but it is rare for the whole country to be affected. 

A ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia has been in place for six days now and has reportedly "greatly reduced" violence even though sporadic clashes still affect some cities throughout the country.

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