A tree fell into a power line Thursday afternoon causing an outage for about 500 customers in Old West Lawrence and Oread neighborhoods, said Gina Penzig, a Westar Energy spokeswoman.

Penzig said Westar was notified of the outage about 12:15 p.m., and it took less than an hour to repair. The tree fell near Seventh and Louisiana streets. It caused an outage for customers in an area bounded by Sixth, 11th, Vermont and Louisiana streets, she said.

In a separate incident, one lane of 23rd Street was closed for an hour after a eight-inch, steel natural gas line broke about 11 a.m. in the 1400 block of 23rd Street, said Curt Floerchinger, a Black Hills Energy spokesman. Floerchinger said contractors were working in the area, but officials were still investigating the cause of the outage.

Crews were able to re-route gas around the broken section of the line, and they are working to repair the line, he said. No injuries were reported.