Vast parts of Spain and Portugal were left without power. Public transport was paralyzed, and huge traffic jams formed in major cities, including the Spanish capital Madrid, because traffic lights stopped working. Power was also briefly cut in parts of France - along the border with northeastern Spain. The cause of the power outage is still unclear.
The governments of Spain and Portugal have called emergency meetings. Spanish grid operator Red Electrica said it was working with regional energy companies to restore power. The electricity distribution company said that restoration after the large-scale and unprecedented outage could take 6-10 hours.
"The entire electricity network has been cut"
The Spanish national railway company Renfe said that "the electricity throughout the country has been cut" at 12:30 p.m. local time. Trains have stopped on the tracks, and no other trains are currently departing from the stations.
Some of the Madrid metro stations were evacuated and then closed. Hundreds of people stood in front of office buildings on the streets of Madrid, and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic and passing with sirens on the central streets. The building in Madrid that houses the British embassy has been evacuated, "Reuters" reports. Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.
Air transport also affected
Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running. According to sources at "Reuters” Lisbon airport is currently running on generators.
Portuguese airline TAP Air warned passengers not to travel to airports until further notice. In a statement on its Facebook page, the airline said some services were not operating as usual and asked passengers to wait for more information. The operator AENA, which runs 46 airports in Spain, has already reported delays across the country.
Mobile network outages, queues at ATMs
Mobile networks have also been hit by the massive power outage. AFP reporters in Madrid and Barcelona saw people taking to the streets holding their smartphones to connect to the network.
POS terminals are also down, causing queues of people to form at ATMs across the country. "It's crazy, we were trying to pay for our lunch and everything stopped," Emily Lansdowne, who is in the city, told the BBC. "We were trying to get a taxi to the beach because all the trains are not running."
The Madrid Open tennis tournament was also temporarily suspended.
Hacker attack?
There is no information on the cause of the outage or when power will be restored. Portuguese grid operator REN said the "entire Iberian peninsula" was affected, as well as parts of France. "All plans to restore energy supplies have been activated," REN added.
The operator said it was investigating the cause. Spain's national cybersecurity agency INCIBE is investigating whether a hacker attack was behind the power outage, Spanish newspaper El País reported.
"I ask all residents of Madrid to limit their movement to a minimum and, if possible, stay where they are. "We want to keep all the roads clean," Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said in a video posted on social media. He spoke from the Spanish capital's integrated emergency center, adding that in addition to the traffic lights being turned off, tunnels on some highways had to be closed.