Indian blackout - in pictures

Passengers rest inside a train while waiting for the electricity to be restored at a railway station in Kolkata Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

Streets are packed with heavy traffic following power cuts and rains in central New Delhi Photograph: Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Commuters work on their laptops as they wait at a bus stop in Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi Photograph: Parivartan Sharma/Reuters

Stranded passengers stand near empty railway tracks as they wait for train services to resume in New Delhi Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

There was a loss of power at the toll gates at Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi Photograph: Reuters

Commuters wait for a bus in Kolkata Photograph: Bikas Das/AP

A teacher conducts a lesson in the light of kerosene lamps and a candle in a house in Kolkata Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

A customer holds a candle as he gets his hair cut at a barber's shop in Kolkata Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

Stranded passengers wait for power to be restored at New Delhi railway station Photograph: Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

A man prepares a meal as others sit at a roadside shop on a dark street following a power outage near a railway station in Allahabad Photograph: SK Yadav/AP

A sparsely illuminated historical monument in New Delhi Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/EPA

Commuters ride on a dark street in Kolkata. India's energy crisis cascaded over half the country when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity for several hours in, by far, the world's biggest-ever blackout Photograph: Bikas Das/AP