The power is back on in downtown St. Petersburg.

  • Transformer explosion knocked out in downtown St. Pete Monday
  • Area affected was Central Avenue to 1st Avenue, North and 3rd Street North east to 2nd Street
  • Power has been restored

Electricity was knocked out in parts of downtown after an underground transformer started smoking and exploded in the area of Third Street and Central Avenue Monday afternoon.

There were hundreds of people initially affected by the outage, as well as businesses.

There were no reported injuries, but smoke and flames were seen pouring from underground.

Duke Energy officials said they are still trying to determine the cause of the explosion.

"We’re working to try and establish temporary power," said Duke Energy Spokeswoman Suzanne Grant. "And do a root cause analysis to determine what happened and how we can make a permanent solution and a permanent fix."