Vandals bent on stealing copper wire have knocked out power to a portion of the Burin Peninsula.

Newfoundland Power says someone broke into their Greenhill Substation in Grand Bank early this morning and attempted to steal copper grounding wire – part of the substation’s protection system.

Once grounding wire is tampered with or removed, NF Power says it becomes extremely dangerous for employees to enter the substation to make repairs.

Some 2,300 customers in Grand, Bank, Fortune and Molliers are affected by the outage which began around 10:00 this morning.

Officials are hoping to have power restored by 9:00 tonight.

Anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.