A mouse is to blame for a three-hour blackout on Monday night that affected at least 90 families in a housing estate on Guangzhou's Shatai Road.

The blackout began at about 8pm when the housing estate's transformer substation suddenly exploded.

Local electricity supply department workers were immediately called in and normal service was resumed in three hours.

They said they found a charred mouse that was most likely the culprit it had entered the substation leading to a short circuit, which caused the explosion.