MASSIVE POWER OUTAGE HITS PORTUGAL AND SPAIN

Spain and Portugal were hit by a widespread power outage that caused massive traffic jams, delayed flights and a public transport system that came to an abrupt halt.

Parts of France were also hit by the outage, but the power was restored within hours.

Although the cause of the outage is currently unknown, officials have not ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack being the reason.

Red Electrica, the Spanish electricity transmission operator, has warned the public that the outage could last from six to 10 hours.

A heavy police presence around some important buildings was visible in Madrid while hundreds of people stood in the streets outside office buildings.

A crisis committee was set up in Spain after the two countries met to discuss the outage. Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, also visited Red Electrica’s control centre.

The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended after the overhead cameras lost power and the scoreboards went dark. Grigor Dimitrov and Jacob Fearnley were forced to stop their match and leave the court.

The European Commission has announced that its working closely with authorities in Portugal and Spain to try and establish the cause of the outage.

Image credit: Sky News