Spain and Portugal have been hit by widespread blackouts, with millions plunged into darkness amid scenes of mayhem across major European cities.
The power cuts come just days after Spain’s power grid ran entirely on renewable energy, including wind, solar and hyrdro power, for a whole day for the first time on April 16.
Spanish officials are urgently investigating the cause of the outages and have said they are looking into the possibility of the blackouts being triggered by a devastating cyber attack.
All of Valencia and Barcelona were left without power, Spain’s entire rail network shut down, internet services stopped working and there was chaos on the streets as traffic built up in Madrid and Lisbon.
Madrid’s Mayor has urged people to stay where they are as they deal with the disaster, while the president of the city’s regional government has called for Spain’s prime minister to activate an emergency plan so soldiers can be deployed.
Videos online show railway networks in Spanish cities plunged into chaos, with people being evacuated through tunnels as blackouts hit underground stations and halted trains.
Parts of France also lost power after the outages in Spain and Portugal, the country’s grid operator confirmed. Further outages have been reported as far as Belgium, according to the latest information.
The cause of the outages is not yet clear, with the Spanish government saying it is working to ‘identify the origin’.
A fire on the Alaric mountain in the south-west of France which damaged a high-voltage power line has also been identified as a possible cause, Portugal’s national electric company REN said.
A director at Spain’s electricity grid operator said just before 3pm local time that the outage is ‘exceptional and totally extraordinary’ and will take between six and 10 hours to repair.
