Chile’s president has declared a state of emergency after an electricity blackout plunged most of the country into darkness on Tuesday, including the capital Santiago.

"We were like sardines in the dark," one passenger described the moment their underground train stalled. Many of those who had been in lifts inside the stations when the power cut happened had to be freed by firefighters. One woman in her 70s was trapped in a lift between two floors in a building in Santiago.

A sweeping power blackout has left most of Chile in darkness. Tuesday's blackout sent internet and phone services offline, paralyzed businesses and forced evacuations of tunnels and subways in the South American nation.