About 1,150 people in Belleville, Swansea and Fairview Heights lost power for about two and a half hours Thursday after a car hit a power pole.

The electricity went off at about 12:15 p.m. Thursday for about 800 people. About half an hour later another 400 people lost power, according to Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris.

A car struck a power pole near Ameren's Belle Valley substation to cause the outage, according to Morris.