‘Apocalyptic’: Millions in Spain and Portugal hit by massive blackout

A major power outage has caused chaos along the Iberian Peninsula, leaving millions in the dark across Spain and Portugal.

A massive blackout has caused mayhem along the Iberian Peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators and leaving millions without phone and internet coverage in Spain, Portugal and – briefly – south western France.

A state of emergency was declared in Spain in the wake of the major outage, which the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said occurred when about 15 gigawatts of electricity – more than half of the power being consumed at the time – “suddenly disappeared” in about five seconds.

More than 60 per cent of Spain’s national electricity supply has since been restored, though Mr Sanchez was unable to say when it would be back completely.

In Portugal, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said power would be totally restored “within hours”.

Both countries saw chaotic scenes as a result, with shops and restaurants plunged into darkness, digital payments and phone lines down, traffic lights out and railways and metro systems brought to a halt.

“Guys, this is literally insane,” Elizabeth Lip said in a TikTok video, walking the streets of Barcelona.

“This is crazy, it feels like the apocalypse and Covid times, sort of, when people are – not panicking – but this is weird and it just shows how everything is dependent on the internet and electricity. No traffic lights are working … It’s crazy.”

People queue for a taxi at Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain. Picture: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Travellers queue for customer care service at Barajas Airport. Picture: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

‘This has never happened in Spain’

People were “stunned”, construction worker Carlos Candori told AFP. The 19-year-old had to exit the paralysed Madrid metro system, and said such an incident “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 said.

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

A traffic light shows no activity in Lisbon, Portugal. Picture: Adri Salido/Getty Images

Metro network employees speak to people in front of a closed entrance of a subway station in downtown Madrid. Picture: Thomas Coex/AFP

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.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Picture: AFP Photo/La Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

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

Spain and Portugal have a highly integrated energy grid that operates as an energy island and is linked to the rest of Europe through a small number of cross-border interconnections with France.

The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain and Portugal over the crisis. European Council President Antonio Costa said on X: “There are no indications of any cyberattack”.

People queue to try to withdraw cash money at an ATM. Picture: Thomas Coex/AFP

One man posted a video on social media saying the blackout trapped him in a lift without coverage for around 40 minutes.

He was freed after half an hour by municipal police, who were informed by a neighbour who heard the man “hitting the door and shouting”.

Transport chaos also gripped Spain’s second city, Barcelona, where locals and tourists alike flooded the streets in an attempt to find out what had happened.

Student Laia Montserrat left school when the lights went out.

“As the internet wasn’t coming back, they told us to go home … (but) there weren’t trains either,” she told AFP.

“Now we don’t know what to do.”

The internet activity monitoring site Netblocks told AFP the blackout caused a “loss of much of the country’s digital infrastructure”.

It said web connections plunged to just 17 per cent of normal usage.

Spain’s El Pais newspaper reported that hospitals used back-up generators to keep critical wards going, but some units were left without power.

Originally published as ‘Apocalyptic’: Millions in Spain and Portugal hit by massive blackout