Power went out across all of Spain and Portugal on Monday, cutting cellphone and internet networks, halting trains and trapping people in elevators, officials said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said after an emergency government meeting on the situation, "we have no conclusive information about the reasons for this outage".
He said no hypothesis could be ruled out, warning the public "not to speculate" because of the risk of "misinformation".
"People were stunned, because this had never happened in Spain," said Carlos Candori, a 19-year-old construction worker who had to exit the paralysed metro system in Madrid.
"There's no (phone) coverage, I can't call my family, my parents, nothing: I can't even go to work," he told AFP.
In Madrid and elsewhere, customers rushed to withdraw cash from banks, and streets filled with crowds trying in vain to get a signal on their mobiles. Long lines formed for taxis and buses. Some people were trapped in elevators or inside garages.
As a precaution, play was cancelled at the Madrid Open tennis tournament for the rest of the day.
With stop lights knocked out, police tried to direct traffic on roads that became densely congested. Authorities urged motorists to stay off the roads, but communication channels were limited.
Spain's railway operator Adif said trains were halted across the country. Spain's nuclear power plants also automatically went offline as a safety precaution, with diesel generators maintaining them in a "safe condition", the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said in a statement.
’Serious disruption’
Sanchez said the blackout, which hit at 12:30 pm (1030 GMT), had caused "serious disruption" for millions and "economic losses in businesses, in companies, in industries".
But he said grid technicians were working to resolve "the problem as soon as possible", adding that some parts of northern and southern Spain were already able to get power thanks to interconnections from France and Morocco.
Sanchez urged people in Spain to limit the use of their mobile phones to avoid overburdening the network, saying "telecommunications are in a critical moment now".
The European Commission said it was in contact with Spain and Portugal over the situation, while European Council President António Costa said on X: "There are no indications of any cyberattack".
The head of operations for Spain's grid operator Red Electrica, Eduardo Prieto, said that repairs were being carried out, but that it would take six to 10 hours to restore power to the country, "if all goes well".
Portugal's REN operator said the entire Iberian Peninsula was affected – 48 million people in Spain and 10.5 million in Portugal.
The huge power cut disrupted flights to and from Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, European air traffic organization Eurocontrol said, adding it was too early to say how many would be affected.
Flights Delayed
Portugal's REN operator said in a statement to AFP that all the Iberian Peninsula was affected by the blackout, adding that the outage occurred around midday.
There was also a brief blackout in southwest France, that country's electricity operator said, but power was now restored.
"An electrical incident is currently affecting Spain and Portugal, the cause of which remains to be determined," France's high-voltage grid operator RTE said.
The European Commission was in contact with Spain and Portugal "to understand the underlying cause" of the outage, a spokesperson said.
Spain's railway operator Adif said that the power cut halted trains across the entire country.
Airports operator Aena said there were flight delays, but the country's airports were still operational thanks to "contingency electricity systems".
Spain's Red Electrica said it had managed to start restoring power in the north and south of the country but the problem was not yet resolved.
"We are continuing to work to bring back power," it said.
Spain's El Pais newspaper posted photos on its website of stopped metro trains in Madrid, police directing traffic, and its own reporters working in a darkened office by the torchlight.
It also reported that hospitals' core departments were able to keep functioning because of back-up generators, even if some other units were left without power.
Massive blackouts have affected other countries around the world in recent years.
Huge outages struck Tunisia in September 2023, Sri Lanka in August 2020, and Argentina and Uruguay in June 2019. In July 2012, India experience a vast blackout.
In Europe, in November 2006, 10 million people were left without power for an hour in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. That was caused by a failure in Germany's grid.
With AFP
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