Vandalism at an Appalachian Power substation in Wheeling initially left nearly 7,800 customers without power and still has left around 5,400 in the dark, according to Appalachian Power.

In a news release, the company said the vandalism at the County Line Substation in Wheeling happened Friday morning. Crews responded immediately and are still assessing the damage and making the site safe so repairs can begin.

Appalachian Power started rerouting customers to other circuits, which restored power for around 2,400 customers within minutes. Crews are now evaluating additional switching methods to restore service to as many remaining customers as possible.

An estimated restoration time was not available as of late Friday morning, the company said. The extent of the damage is still being evaluated, and restoration updates will be shared as soon as more information becomes available.

“APCo is working closely with local law enforcement as they investigate the incident,” the statement read. “APCo also understands the inconvenience this outage causes and appreciates our customers’ patience while crews work as quickly and safely as possible to restore service. Customers are encouraged to enroll in outage alerts to receive updates on restoration times.”

According to the Appalachian Power outage map, power is out for customers from Elm Grove and Edgwood into Bethlehem and downtown Wheeling.