Power returns to most of Spain, Portugal after massive blackout

Lights flickered back to life in Spain and Portugal Tuesday after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators while millions saw phone and Internet coverage die.

Electricity had been restored to nearly 90 percent of mainland Spain early Tuesday, the REE power operator said. Lights came on again in Madrid and in Portugal's capital.

Barely a corner of the peninsula, which has a joint population of almost 60 million people, escaped the blackout. But no firm cause for the shutdown has yet emerged, though wild rumours spread on messaging networks about cyber attacks.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the source of the outage was "probably in Spain." Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said "all the potential causes" were being analysed and warned the public "not to speculate" because of the risk of "misinformation."

Sanchez said about 15 gigawatts of electricity, more than half of the power being consumed at the time, "suddenly disappeared" in about 5 seconds.

Sanchez was unable to say when power would be completely restored in Spain and warned that some workers would have to stay home Tuesday. Montenegro said Portugal's power would be back "within hours."

Power was restored overnight to around 6.2 million households in Portugal out of 6.5 million, according to the national electricity grid operator.

The outage rippled briefly into southwest France while Morocco saw disruption to some Internet providers and airport check-in systems.

People were "stunned," according to Carlos Candori, a 19-year-old construction worker who had to exit the paralysed Madrid metro system. "This has never happened in Spain."

"There's no (phone) coverage, I can't call my family, my parents, nothing: I can't even go to work," he told AFP.

Cash queues

In Madrid and cities across Spain and Portugal, panicked customers rushed to withdraw cash from banks, and streets filled with crowds floundering for a phone signal. Long lines formed for taxis and buses.

With stop lights knocked out, police struggled to keep densely congested traffic moving and authorities urged motorists to stay home.

In Madrid alone 286 rescue operations were carried out to free people trapped in lifts, regional authorities said.

Trains were halted across the country and late Monday, the transport minister said there were still 11 trains with stranded passengers who needed help.

Railway stations in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Seville and four other major cities were to be kept open all night so that stranded passengers could sleep there.

Spain's nuclear power plants automatically went offline as a safety precaution, with diesel generators maintaining them in a "safe condition," the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said.

Sanchez said the blackout, which hit just after midday, caused "serious disruption" for millions and "economic losses in businesses, in companies, in industries."