SANTIAGO, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- A power outage that left 98 percent of Chileans without electricity for about eight hours on Tuesday led to the death of three people who were on electrical life support, the government said Wednesday.

Energy Minister Diego Pardow told reporters that three people lost their lives during the blackout.

"There are three cases that we are investigating, we are waiting to see if there were failures in the support generators," said the official.

Health Minister Ximena Aguilera said all three victims were dependent on electrical life support.

Likewise, Interior Minister Carolina Toha addressed the deaths, saying "we have reports of three people who were dependent on electricity who died during the night. Their death is not necessarily linked to the outage, it is something that has to be established."

She added that power had been restored to 97 percent of the affected territory and a curfew had been lifted.

Following the power outage, officials declared a curfew and suspended activities across the country, including the Vina del Mar International Festival and the Chile Open tennis tournament.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric addressed the nation from the Government Palace on Tuesday night to explain that the massive blackout was caused by an electrical failure on the power line that runs between Vallenar and Coquimbo, in the north, which is operated by the ISA InterChile company. Enditem

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