Marten gnaws through cable, blacks out 20,000 Austrian houses

Some 20,000 houses in Upper Austria were left without electricity after a marten gnawed through an electricity cable.

Some 20,000 houses in Upper Austria were left without electricity after a marten gnawed through an electricity cable, local radio said.

The beech marten apparently got into a transformer substation in the Innviertel region on Sunday and gnawed through a 30 kilovolt cable.

Engineers arriving to fix the fault found the animal dead at the scene.

VIENNE, December 14 (RIA Novosti)