LAS CRUCES — A hot air balloon has knocked out power to about 10 electric company customers, an El Paso Electric spokeswoman said.

Teresa Souza said a hot air balloon taking off in this morning's Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally media day struck a power line about 8:30 a.m.

The rally site is at Brown Field, north of Las Cruces.

Aaron Jackson of the Greater Mesilla Valley Aerostat Association was unaware of any such incident.

Souza said another power outage earlier this morning knocked out power to about 3,000 customers in the High Range area in east Las Cruces.

A downed power line is being blamed for the outage which began about 3:15 a.m., Souza said. Power was restored about 5:30 a.m.