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Spain, Portugal and France have been hit by widespread blackouts, with scenes of mayhem across major European cities as the power outages hit.
All of Valencia and Barcelona were without power, Spain’s entire rail network shut down, internet services stopped working and there was chaos on the streets as traffic built up.
Videos online show railway networks in Spanish cities plunged into chaos, with blackouts seen in underground stations and huge queues forming on platforms.
Major hubs including Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon were hit by the outage.
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.
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.
E-Redes, a Spanish electricity grid monitoring company, said it was investigating the cause of the outage, which it described as ‘a wider European problem’. It added that it was working on reestablishing connection in phases.
Pictures on social media show power outages at train stations
Blackouts hit metro systems in Barcelona and Valencia
Video showed travellers queuing at a station in Spain amid the power outage
The outage is reported to have forced the closure of tram systems in Spain
A cook at a takeaway restaurant works in a dark kitchen with the aid of phone’s flashlight during a power outage in Madrid
Parts of Madrid’s sprawling metro system have been evacuated and traffic lights in the capital have stopped working, posing risk on major carriageways.
The outage is also said to have forced the closure of Barcelona’s tram system and stopped some traffic lights in the city from working.
Internet and telephone lines across the country are also said to be down.
Meanwhile play has been suspended at the Madrid Open tennis tournament.
Spanish railway company Renfe said that all trains have halted and no departures are currently taking place, with a power outage at a ‘national level’.
Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Eléctrica wrote on X: ‘Plans to restore the electricity supply have been activated in collaboration with companies in the sector following the zero that occurred in the peninsular system.
‘The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it. We will continue to report.’
Lottie Feist, 23, who lives in Lisbon, told of panic across the Portuguese capital as traffic lights cut out.
The translation student at Nova University said: ‘There is no electricity, nothing is working.
‘We don’t know what’s happening or why we are having a blackout.
‘The roads are absolute carnage as no traffic lights are working.
‘All the power is down, and businesses are being impacted.
‘It’s terrifying, people will be stuck in elevators, and everything has completely shut down.’
In the Spanish city of Valencia, Metrovalencia which runs the city’s urban rail system said traffic was ‘disrupted’ due to a ‘general power outage in the city’.
In a post on X, Metrovalencia added: ‘The extent and duration of the outage are unknown.’
The Spanish government has gathered for an emergency session and is monitoring the situation as it develops, according to Spanish media.
