A massive power outage in Chile left 19 million people without electricity on Tuesday.

The blackout affected the northern Arica and Parinacota regions to the southern Los Lagos region, according to the country's Undersecretary of the Interior.

The power failure was first reported at 3:15pm local time in several parts of the country.

The agency in charge of Chile's power grid said the outage was caused by a disconnection in the transmission system in the Norte Chico region. 

The outage left about 98.5 percent of the population without power, according to Interior Minister Carolina Tohá.

At least 582,430 people were without electricity around the Santiago metropolitan region, the Electricity and Fuels Superintendent said.

Officials also said that 328,488 customers in Los Lagos and another 161,843 residents in Los Ríos also did not have power.

Several cities reported the return of electricity by 5pm local time, according to local broadcasters.

People sit inside a restaurant in Santiago, the capital of Chile, that was affected by Tuesday afternoon's nationwide power outage

A man walks in a parking garage during a power outage, in Santiago, Chile on Tuesday

People stand outside buildings after a large power outage struck vast swaths of Chile. The National Electrical Coordinator, the agency in charge of country's power grid, said the outage was caused by a disconnection in the transmission system in the Norte Chico region

Tohá announced that an emergency meeting was scheduled with the Disaster Risk Management Committees.

'Given the power outage that is occurring between the regions of Arica and Parinacota and Los Lagos, I have called for an immediate meeting of the National #Cogrid [Disaster Risk Management Committees], where we will adopt measures to address the emergency and work on restoring the service,' she wrote in a post on X.

Tohá added during a press conference that residents should exercise patience while the government worked to restore power.

'I call for calm, to understand that it is a failure in the system, that we are not the object of an attack, that the service should be restored promptly,' she said. 

The subway service in the capital, Santiago, where millions of passengers are served, was shut down by 3:20pm.

The outage also caused streets lights to stop working and led to chaos on the roads, including a crash between a mini van and a car that left four people injured in Santiago.

The lack of train service also had residents scrambling for ways to return to their homes as buses were filled to a capacity.

People reported taxis and Uber had hiked their prices as a result of the national emergency.

Transportation Minister Juan Carlos Múñoz said that at least 4,500 diesel-fueled would be on the road in Santiago Wednesday morning if electricity was not restored.

Tuesday's nationwide blackout in Chile led to the shutdown of the subway system, especially in the capital Santiago, where millions of residents are served

People stand outside buildings after the power outage

Santiago's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, the nation's largest, was operating normally.

Latam Airlines said in a statement 'that due to the interruption of the power supply in a large part of Chile, some of our flights could be affected.' It urged passengers to check their flight status online.

Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, was without electricity, a source told Reuters. 

Workers from the local electricity company inspect the power lines during a blackout in the Chilean resort city of Viña del Mar

Pedestrians rest on the lawn outside La Moneda Palace in Santiago while the Chilean capital city dealt with the effects of Tuesday's power outage

Train station staff provide information to customers in Viña del Mar, which was left in the dark following Tuesday's blackout

Residents crowded the flatbed of a pickup truck to move around in Santiago, the capital of Chile

Antofagasta, a copper mining group, said it was operating its mines with a backup power generator.

The blackout left several passengers stuck on a roller coaster as the ride was about to descend down the tracks at Fantasilandia, an amusement park in Santiago.

The park's management told CNN Chile that backup generators were deployed in order to restore service and remove the customers.