Massive power outage reported in Spain, Portugal; reason unknown

Barcelona: A major power outage has been reported in Spain and Portugal, including their capitals.

Spanish generator RedElectrica says the Iberian Peninsula was affected. It says the incident is being assessed and responded to.

The countries have a combined population of more than 50 million people. It is not immediately clear how many people are affected.

Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country at around 12:30 p.m. local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid and metro stations across the country in the dark.

People in neighbourhood WhatsApp chats in Barcelona and the outskirts of cities and towns also reported the outage.

In Portugal, a country of some 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.

Portuguese distributor E-Redes said the outage was due to “a problem with the European electricity system,” according to Portuguese newspaper Expresso.

The company said it was compelled to cut power in specific areas to stabilise the network, according to Expresso.

E-Redes said parts of France also were affected.

It was not possible to make calls on mobile phone networks, though some apps were working.

Unconfirmed news reports said the Lisbon subway stopped running. Traffic lights in the city centre stopped working.