NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Construction crews struck an electrical line in downtown Nashville on Thursday, causing an underground transformer to explode.

Images: Transformer Explodes Downtown

The incident happened around 8 a.m. when crews were drilling into concrete on Commerce Street near Second Avenue around Demo's restaurant.

Witnesses reported that the explosion sounded like a series of bombs going went off.

Lots of smoke filled the area and the Nashville Electric Service had to come to the area to shut off power to prevent more problems.

Everyone in area was evacuated, but no one was hurt.

It took crews a couple of hours to get the situation under control.

Similar Incident Occurred In 1999

This is the second time and incident similar to this has happened downtown.

An underground transformer explosion killed a worker and badly burned a tourist almost 10 years ago.

The incident happened on lower Broadway in 1999 when NES was performing construction work in front what was then the Nascar Café.

One employee was killed, another person was injured and two tourists were badly burned.

The out of town couple sued NES and eventually won $1.7 million.