Santiago, Sep 25 (IANS) More than nine million people were affected by a massive power outage that plagued northern and central parts of Chile Saturday night, including capital Santiago, officials said.

Two-and-a-half hours after the blackout at about 8.30 p.m., more than 90 percent of the capital region's power supply was restored, but system instability and congestion of cell phone and Internet networks would remain for a while, Energy Minister Rodrigo Alvarez told the media.

The power outage was caused by a hitch in the Central Interconnected System, which provides electricity supply to 93 percent of the population, he said, adding that a problem in the remote recovery computer system may force technicians to recover the system manually, reported Xinhua.

"We would not rule out any cause for the outage," the minister said.

It was the second massive blackout in Chile since a 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the South American nation Feb 27, 2010 and severely damaged its electrical distribution system.