BERLIN (AP) – Part of the power supply at Frankfurt Airport was cut off for several hours overnight after a dormouse caused a short circuit in a substation, officials said Tuesday. The power outage had only a limited impact on air traffic.

The energy supplier Syna said the rodent caused the short circuit on Monday at around 10:45 p.m., reported the German news agency dpa. The power was cut off and the airport fire brigade was called out because of the smoke. At around 3:20 a.m. the power was restored and the dormouse was found dead next to the cable, which it had nibbled on.

Airport operator Fraport said the impact on air traffic was limited because the incident occurred shortly before the end of night flights and had been resolved long before flights resumed on Tuesday morning.

However, the airport announced on the social network X that “due to a technical problem, delays and cancellations of flights are to be expected this morning…”.

Eleven flights were canceled on Tuesday morning, the dpa reported. A total of 1,242 flights were planned at Germany’s busiest airport on Tuesday.

Fraport said that pest controllers are constantly on duty, but incidents like this cannot be completely ruled out. The airport is supplied with electricity by two different suppliers and there are six substations.

The Associated Press