Parts of Spain and Portugal, including Madrid and Lisbon, as well as areas in France and Belgium, were hit by a massive power outage, Sky News reported, as quoted by Vesti.
According to Spanish electricity grid operator Red Electrica, teams are working hard to restore normal power supplies. Authorities have not specified the exact cause of the outage, but investigations are ongoing.
Media reports indicate that the outages have affected major cities such as Seville, Barcelona and Valencia. Due to the outages, telephone lines were cut and the capital's metro and trams stopped working, forcing thousands of passengers to be evacuated. Traffic lights in Madrid stopped working, and play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was temporarily suspended.
The power outage began at 12:34 p.m. local time, when electricity consumption plummeted from 25,184 MW to 12,425 MW in minutes, indicating a serious destabilization of the grid. Among the most affected areas were Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Catalonia and Jaén. Metro and rail services in these regions were halted, and many mobile networks and internet connections were disrupted.
In hospitals, operations were canceled due to problems with the electrical systems, and access to electronic health records was limited.
Although France did not experience a complete grid failure, some southern regions of the country also suffered power supply problems, which made daily life difficult for citizens. Authorities are working to restore normal power supplies in these areas.