The lights returned to life in Spain and Portugal on Tuesday after a mass blackout hit the passengers of the Iberian Peninsula in trains and hundreds of elevators, while millions saw die by phone and internet.
Electricity had been restored to more than 90 percent of continental Spain on Early Tuesday, said Energy Operator Ree. The lights came back in Madrid and in the capital of Portugal.
Just a corner of the Peninsula, which has a joint population of almost 60 million people, escaped from the blackout. But a firm cause for closing has not yet emerged, although wild rumors spread in messaging networks about cyber attacks.
Portuguese prime minister Luis Montenegro said the source of the interruption was “probably in Spain.” The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, said that “all potential causes” were being analyzed and warned the public that “does not speculate” due to the risk of “misinformation.”
Sánchez said that about 15,000 megawatts of electricity, more than half of the energy consumed at that time, “suddenly disappeared” in about five seconds.
He could not say when power would be completely restored in Spain and warned that some workers would have to stay at home on Tuesday. Montenegro said that Portugal’s power would return “in a matter of hours.”
The energy was restored during the night to around 6.2 million homes in Portugal of 6.5 million, according to the National Electric Operator.
The interruption extended briefly towards southwest France, while Morocco saw an interruption in some Internet suppliers and airport registration systems.
People were “stunned,” according to Carlos Candori, a 19 -year -old construction worker who had to leave the paralyzed Madrid Metro system. “This has never happened in Spain.”
“There is no coverage (phone), I can’t call my family, my parents, nothing: I can’t even go to work,” he said AFP
Cash tails
In Madrid and the cities of Spain and Portugal, panic customers rushed to remove effective from banks, and streets full of crowds staggering for a telephone signal. Long lines formed for taxis and bus.
With the knocked stop lights, the police fought to maintain densely congested traffic and the authorities urged motorists to stay at home.
In Madrid alone, 286 rescue operations were carried out for free people trapped in elevators, regional authorities said.
The trains stopped throughout the country and on Tuesday morning, three trains were still stranded in Spain with passengers on board, according to the Minister of Transportation, Oscar Puente.
Several high-speed railway lines are expected to resume normal service, even between Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Valencia, but interruptions between Barcelona-Aliante and between Madrid-Galicia (Northwest) are left, bridge wrote in X.
Railroad stations in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Seville and four other important cities kept open all night so that stranded passengers could sleep there.
The nuclear centrals of Spain were automatically disconnected as a precaution of security, with diesel generators that keep them in a “safe condition,” said the Spanish Nuclear Security Council.
Severe interruption
Sanchez said the blackout, which hit just after noon, caused a “serious interruption” for millions and “economic losses in companies, in companies, in industries.”
The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain and Portugal for the crisis. The president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said in X: “There are no indications of any cyber attack.”
The huge energy cut interrupted flights to and from Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, said the European Organization of the European European European Traffic.
France affected
The transport chaos also seized the second city of Spain, Barcelona, where the locals and tourists flooded the streets in an attempt to find out what had happened.
The student Laia Montserrat left school when the lights went out.
“As the Internet did not come back, they told us to go home … [but] There were no trains either, “she said AFP. “Now we don’t know what to do.”
The network monitoring internet activities monitoring site said Netblocks AFP The blackout caused a “loss of much of the country’s digital infrastructure.” He said the web connections were submerged at only 17PC of normal use.
Spain The country The newspaper reported that hospitals used support generators to maintain critical rooms, but some units were left without energy.
Mass blackouts have affected other countries around the world in recent years.
Huge interruptions attacked Tunisia in September 2023, Sri Lanka in August 2020 and Argentina and Uruguay in June 2019. In July 2012, India experienced a great blackout.
In Europe, in November 2006, 10 million people were unimposable for an hour in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. That was caused by a failure in the German network.
