A power cut in Jeddah Islamic Port has delayed the departure of two passenger ships heading for Sudan with 2,000 pilgrims on board.

The three-hour power failure, beginning at 6 p.m., led to an exchange of accusations between officials of the Port and Saudi Electricity Company on the causes of the failure.

A source at the port said the departure of the pilgrims was delayed because of the recurrent power failure.

However, the director-general of the port, Capt. Saher Tahlawi, was quoted as saying in the local media that the power cut did not last more than 10 minutes. “The emergency electrical generators were switched on immediately. The problem originated from the Saudi Electricity Company, not from the port,” he asserted.

But an official of the Saudi Electricity Company said the power failure lasted more than an hour and a half as a result of a malfunction in the internal electrical network of the port.

The official said the company tried to restore power three times before it became clear that an internal circuit was disrupted. “The maintenance team at the port managed to isolate the malfunction and restore the power later,” he said.

Jeddah Islamic Port is the main point of entry for pilgrims coming by sea every year. The port is to transport this year 14,000 pilgrims via 34 cruise ships, scheduled on two or three trips a day.