Around 45,000 homes in Gelderland province are still without electricity on Thursday morning after an Apache helicopter crashed into a high voltage power mast yesterday evening.

Soldiers from the engineering corps have been called in to help the power grid operator Continuon (a separate division of the energy firm Nuon) because of difficulties in reaching the mast which is located close to the fast-flowing Waal river.
The repair operation is expected to take most of the day.
In total around 50,000 people between Rossum and Heesselt were hit by the power cut yesterday but between 4,000 and 5,000 have already been reconnected. Key buildings such as old people’s homes are operating on emergency generators.