UC Berkeley Explosion: All Students Ordered to Evacuate

There was an explosion at the University of California at Berkeley at approximately 6:40 pm local time on Monday. An unconfirmed number of people have been injured, and university administrators have ordered the campus evacuated. The explosion occurred near California Hall and appears due to a power system failure, according to school officials, who are reportedly looking into the possibility that a thief tried to steal copper from the high-voltage electrical system.

The university has released the following update:

Update 7:27 p.m. [Pacific time] The power outage and explosion were due to a power system failure. All are asked to leave the main campus area immediately. For updates call 800-705-9998

The campus is experiencing a power outage.  All classes this evening are cancelled.  Lab operations should be safely shut down and people should leave the building.  At this time, most major IT services (bspace, bconnected, etc.) are offline. When power returns, these systems will gradually come online. More information will be posted at this location.  For ongoing updates, please call 1-800-705-9998 throughout the evening.