Thousands of homes and businesses in Moncton are spending part of their day without power.

NB Power is reporting more than 5,300 customers without electricity as of 10:30 a.m. Friday.

A spokesperson said the outage was caused by an animal coming into contact with equipment.

“Crews are currently on site to repair the damage and restore power safely to all customers,” said the spokesperson.

The utility estimates it could be 2 p.m. Friday before all customers have their power restored.

New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) said its Moncton campus will be closing at 11:30 a.m. Friday due to the outage.

More to come.