BBC issue statement after Snooker World Championship interrupted leaving fans fuming

The BBC were forced to switch to a wildlife programme after its coverage of the Snooker World Championships was interrupted by technical problems at the Crucible . A statement from the broadcaster said: "We are sorry for the break in this programme and are trying to correct the fault. Please stay with us we are experiencing some technical faults." Multiple voiceovers followed before a wildlife show started broadcasting on BBC Two, with it subsequently revealed that a power fault at the Crucible was impacting the live transmission. The semi-final between Mark Allen and Wu Yize was in its third frame when the problem occurred. The feed dropped out at 19:51 BST and remained unavailable for 12 minutes before coverage returned on BBC iPlayer and TNT, although issues on BBC Two continued. Shortly after, pictures were restored with Hazel Irvine acknowledging the disruption and confirming that Allen had won the third frame. She said: "Welcome back to Sheffield and our apologies for the interruption to our evening at the Crucible in the second semi-final, We had a rather unexpected power issue. JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! All the best sports news and much more on our dedicated Facebook page "Nothing to do with not feeding the meter I assure you! "We lost power but Mark Allen did not, he took frame three to get his semi-final campaign underway." The Northern Irishman also emerged strongly in the fourth frame, eventually completing a break of 76 to draw level in the match. The broadcast then returned to the studio with Irvine announcing: "Well Mark Allen is back in this match and we are back as well after a slight unexpected hiatus. "There was a big crash, bang and wallop in there and that sort of led to what we think is the power going off, however, in the middle of it all Mark Allen was amassing a break of 91." Steve Davis chipped in: "It was obvious when the screens went blank in the room here that something happened, lights went off and cameras stopped filming. "Mark Allen was aware something had happened and how good a performance to keep his standard up without getting confused by what was going on. "Nobody knew what to do and amazingly it happened again but he still kept his composure." Allen booked his place in his third World Championship semi-final after battling through a thrilling quarter-final encounter against Barry Hawkins earlier in the week. Yize knocked out Hossein Vafaei to claim his spot in the last four alongside John Higgins and Shaun Murphy, who remain the two contenders scrapping it out for a berth in Monday's final.