Large parts of Rotterdam’s Europoort industrial area shut down for two hours on Tuesday following a power failure.

Around 11,000 homes as well as large industrial users such as BP and Exxon were left without electricity when the network went down at 10am.

Goods trains were unable to run to the area and the metro line between Steendijkpolder and Hoek van Holland seafront was suspended until midday.

Stena Line and P&O Ferries were also cut off, but the power failure did not affect shipping in Rotterdam harbour, network operator Stedin said.

Chemical companies at Europoort had to flare off gas to prevent a build-up of explosive substances when their electricity went down. Gas flares and clouds of black smoke were visible in the skyline across the area, but Milieudienst Rijnmond said the environmental impact was “low”.

The problem was caused by a loss of power in a substation that converts high-voltage electricity to medium and low-voltage so it can be distributed to end-users, power grid operator Tennet said.

“The 150,000-volt station at Europort lost power,” a spokesman said. “It’s rare for it to go down completely.”

The last of the 11,341 residential and business customers were reconnected shortly before 12.30pm, Stedin said.