Spain and Portugal hit by power cuts with millions affected
Spanish generator Red Electrica said the incident had affected the Iberian peninsula and is being assessed.
Such a widespread outage is rare.
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Spain and Portugal hit by power cut
The Portuguese Cabinet convened an emergency meeting at the prime minister's residence, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Red Electrica to follow efforts on restoring power to the grid.
The countries have a combined population of more than 50 million people, but it is unsure how many were affected.
Spain's public broadcaster, RTVE, said a major power outage hit several regions of the country just after midday local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain's parliament in Madrid and subway stations across the country in the dark.
A graph on Spain's electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop at around 12.15pm from 27,500MW to near 15,000MW.
A couple of hours later, Spain's electricity network operator said it was recovering power in the north and south of the peninsula, which would help to progressively restore the electricity supply nationwide.
In Portugal, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.
Portugal's government said the incident appeared to stem from problems outside the country, according to national news agency Lusa.
Cabinet Minister Leitao Amaro said: 'It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain. It's still being ascertained."
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, the newspaper added.
E-Redes said parts of France also were affected.
What happens if you miss your flight due to airport delays?
Power cuts cause major disruptions across Spain and Portugal
A video shown on Spanish television showed people evacuating metro stations in Madrid, and empty stations with trains stopped in Barcelona.
Spain's traffic department asked citizens to avoid using their cars as much as possible due to the power outage, which affected traffic lights and electric road signs.
In Terrassa, an industrial town 31 miles (50km) from Barcelona, stores selling generators were out of stock after people queued up to buy them.
Portuguese police placed more officers on duty to direct traffic and cope with increased requests for help, including from people trapped in lifts.
Portuguese hospitals and other emergency services switched to generators.
Portugal's National Authority for Emergencies and Civil Protection said back-up power systems were operating.
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Several Lisbon subway cars were evacuated, reports said.
Also in Portugal, courts stopped work and ATMs and electronic payment systems were affected. Traffic lights in Lisbon stopped working.
It was not possible to make calls on mobile phone networks, though some apps were working.
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