In brief
Millions were plunged into darkness across Spain and Portugal on Monday due to significant power outages, disrupting daily life and prompting investigations into the underlying causes.
The Iberian Peninsula experienced a massive power failure on Monday that left millions of residents across Spain and Portugal without electricity for hours, affecting various aspects of daily life. As traffic signals went dark and trains halted, long queues formed outside grocery stores and ATMs, with payment systems rendered non-functional.Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced that officials are actively investigating the outages, while Portugal’s energy provider, E-Redes, noted that there was an undetermined issue within the European electricity grid that may have contributed to the failure. Senior Portuguese official António Leitão Amaro emphasized that there is no evidence linking the outage to a cyberattack, and a Portuguese electricity and gas supplier, REN, refuted claims that the incident was due to an "atmospheric phenomenon.”Critical services, including hospitals and financial institutions, faced severe interruptions as internet connectivity and mobile network access faltered throughout both countries. Sánchez cautioned residents to limit their cellphone usage to critical calls as authorities worked to restore normalcy following this extensive disruption.
