LOS ANGELES - A POWER outage lasting more than two hours caused massive traffic jams across west Los Angeles and trapped at least a dozen people in elevators.

Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Stephanie Interiano said the outage started around 7.40pm on Wednesday and affected about 20,500 customers. Power was restored shortly before 10pm.

Interiano says a failed cable inside the distribution station caused the blackout.

Fire Department spokesman Lauren deRosier says firefighters responded to 13 reports of people trapped in elevators, and traffic across Brentwood, Westwood and other neighbourhoods sat snarled as motorists waded through darkened intersections. -- AP