Los Angeles ? Major portions of the city lost power for more than an hour around lunchtime Monday after utility workers mistakenly cut several cables, causing a short that sizzled through the system.

Roughly 2 million people were affected by the resultant power surge and outages, which trapped some in elevators and snarled intersections regionwide. All power was restored by 3 p.m., about 2 1/2 hours later.

At the height of the blackout, many office workers seized the chance for an extended lunch on a mild afternoon, even as police and fire sirens echoed in the background.

“I’m just reading the paper and seeing a lot of my colleagues out here, so I guess we all have a good excuse,” said Ludwig Welsh as he ate his midday meal outside his downtown insurance office.

There were few reports of injuries. Two men were briefly hospitalized after inhaling toxic fumes at an oil refinery when smoke backed up after the power went out, fire officials said.

Police discounted terrorism almost immediately, though the timing of the outage caused some concern: It came a day after the airing of videotape in which a purported al-Qaida member threatened Los Angeles.

“We were all freaked out, no doubt#,” said downtown high-rise worker Vicki Brakl.

Though the Police Department ordered all officers to stay on their shifts and surveyed the city by helicopter, law enforcement officials dismissed sabotage even before the utility explained what happened.

The outage began at about 12:30 p.m. when workers installing an automated alert system cut several wires simultaneously, instead of one at a time, according to Ed Miller of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

That caused the short that led to all the trouble. Utility officials initially said the outage occurred when the cables were incorrectly reconnected.