Updated 1.30pm

Problems with the Malta-Sicily interconnector disrupted electricity supply to 32  per cent of Enemalta's network on Sunday morning and left towns stretching from St Paul's Bay to Marsascala without power. 

In a statement issued at 12pm, Enemalta said it was working to restore supply using alternative capacity at the Delimara power station.  

Power started being restored to some towns within 17 minutes of the outage, the company subsequently said in a later statement. 

"Most areas were reconnected to the network in 45 minutes and all services were back online by 1235hr."

The company said power was disrupted at around 11.25am when problems arose at the interconnector's terminal station in Ragusa, Sicily. 

At the time, 32 per cent of Malta's electricity was coming from the interconnector, with 46 per cent generated at Delimara 3 and Delimara 4 plants, and 22 per cent from local grid-connected renewables. 

With power now restored thanks to backup from Delimara, technicians with Enemalta and Italian network operator Terna are working to identify the technical fault and resynchronise the two countries' grids. 

In the meantime, Enemalta said it had launched an internal inquiry into the incident.

The relatively brief outage knocked various sets of traffic lights out cold, with people also reporting that the power cut triggered several alarm systems in affected areas. 

Facebook users posting to group The Salott reported no power in towns as diverse as Ħamrun, Naxxar, Attard, Xgħajra, St Julian's and Santa Venera. 

"Alarms going off like crazy everywhere!" one wrote shortly after power first went down.