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Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Copper cable thefts bring key Spanish rail route to a standstill with thousands stranded - days after country was thrown into chaos by blackout
Thousands of rail passengers in Spain have faced delays after copper cables used in the signalling system of a high-speed line travelling south from Madrid to Seville were stolen at five locations, authorities said. The theft, which happened late Sunday, affected dozens of trains travelling between Madrid and the southern Andalusian cities of Seville, Malaga and Granada as many people were returning home to Spain's capital after a holiday weekend. Copper prices are high on global markets, meaning criminals stand to collect big sums of cash from selling the material. Transport minister Oscar Puente said in an X post that he expected the rail line would fully return to its normal schedule by 4pm local time. Many travellers crowded Madrid's Atocha station on Monday seeking information about their trains from rail employees and screens with updated departure times. By 9am, Alberto Valero and his family had spent hours at the station because of delays on services to Seville, where they were headed. Mr Valero was on holiday in Spain from Mexico, and expressed frustration about the lack of information. 'We're here with tourists from everywhere - France, Portugal,' Mr Valero said. 'Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' The cable theft took place at five points on the high-speed line in Toledo in central Spain, Mr Puente said on X, adding that Spain's national police force was investigating the incident. Spain's high-speed rail network has expanded rapidly and travels through large stretches of the country's little-populated countryside. The incident came a week after a blackout in Spain and Portugal saw high-speed train traffic in Spain ground to a halt, stranding many passengers for several hours. Described as 'catastrophically bad', the outage grounded flights, sent roads into gridlock as traffic lights failed, and left entire cities without power or telecommunications. A British holidaymaker was forced to give birth to a premature baby in the garden of a Costa del Sol hotel during the outage. The tourist sought help from a receptionist after her waters broke. The hotel worker tried to call a taxi - but ended up helping her give birth and even practiced CPR on the new-born baby who didn't have a pulse. The drama happened at the Puente Real Hotel in Torremolinos. The unnamed British tourist was rushed to hospital after emergency medical responders reached the hotel and took her away in an ambulance with a police escort. She was 30 weeks pregnant when she went into labour. The baby was said to be in a 'critical' condition this morning. The outage caused a frenzy across the Spain, with the interior ministry deploying 30,000 police officers countrywide to maintain security in an evening of darkness. Huge queues formed outside shops and banks as residents, with tourists desperately seeking to stockpile essentials and take out cash. Rows of cars were pictured lining up at petrol stations as people hoped to fill up their vehicles and fuel cans, with expats detailing how they have tried to power generators to keep their homes going. The partly state-owned grid operator's chief of operations told reporters last week that grid instability caused the Spanish and French electricity interconnection through the Pyrenees mountains to split, resulting in a general collapse of the Spanish system. Sanchez said that the country had lost 15GW of electricity generation in five seconds - equivalent to 60 per cent of national demand - and later thanked France and Morocco for providing Spain with power. While the exact cause remains unclear, REN, Portugal's grid operator, said they believed a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' was behind the outages. Experts say the blackout is likely due to a combination of factors including Spain's reliance on green energy and 'anomalous oscillations' in power lines.
Scottish Sun
05-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
Travel chaos in Spain as trains halted and passengers hit with delays after cable theft – days after power outage
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THIEVES have stolen copper cables from Spain's high-speed train network, halting services, stranding thousands and trapping passengers on trains overnight. The theft targeted line cables in four spots within a 6-mile stretch between Madrid and Seville - Transport Minister Oscar Puente called it a 'serious act of sabotage' on X. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 People waited anxiously for news about their delayed trains at the Madrid train station Credit: AP 4 Thousands were left stranded here on Sunday evening Credit: EPA 4 Train disruptions still continue Credit: EPA Thousands of passengers were left waiting in Madrid's Atocha station on Sunday evening after the network was hit was delays. Mexican tourist Alberto Valero and his family spent hours stranded at the station due to delays on the Madrid–Seville train line. Valero said: 'We're here with tourists from everywhere - France, Portugal. "Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' Train services on numerous lines of the high-speed network were suspended. Nine trains were even left stranded between stations, with many passengers forced to spend the night onboard, according to interviews on Spain's state broadcaster TVE. On Monday morning, only a few trains left Madrid for Toledo, as services to cities further south, like Seville and Malaga, were still suspended, Spain's railway infrastructure company ADIF said on X. The train connecting Madrid and cities in the South was expected to resume service at around 9.30am on Monday, ADIF said. The railway company said its staff were working to replace the stolen cables and reestablish the service. The network links most major cities but is exposed to cable thefts as it runs through vast, empty countryside. Spain and Portugal power outage – Sweeping blackouts shut down internet & grind transport to a halt It comes after Spain and Portugal were plunged into blackout last Monday - affecting more than 55 million people and lasting more than half a day. Spain's Interior Ministry declared a national emergency and deployed 30,000 police to maintain order as both governments held emergency cabinet meetings. In Madrid, emergency crews carried out 286 rescues to free people trapped in lifts, while passengers in Portugal were forced to flee darkened underground tunnels. Traffic lights failed, mobile networks collapsed, and desperate residents queued outside shops, petrol stations and banks to grab supplies and cash. Airports in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona ground to a halt, with hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of British tourists stranded. Hundreds of passengers were also left trapped on trains. Spain's transport minister said 11 trains remained stranded with passengers on board on Tuesday, nearly nine hours after the blackout. At least five people are known to have lost their lives to various tragedies in the 24 hours of the blackout. The blackout was dubbed the worst in European history - eclipsing the 2003 outage that hit 56 million people in Italy and Switzerland.
The Irish Sun
05-05-2025
- The Irish Sun
Travel chaos in Spain as trains halted and passengers hit with delays after cable theft – days after power outage
THIEVES have stolen copper cables from Spain's high-speed train network, halting services, stranding thousands and trapping passengers on trains overnight. The theft targeted line cables in four spots within a 6-mile stretch between Madrid and Seville - Transport Minister Oscar Puente called it a 'serious act of sabotage' on X. 4 People waited anxiously for news about their delayed trains at the Madrid train station Credit: AP 4 Thousands were left stranded here on Sunday evening Credit: EPA 4 Train disruptions still continue Credit: EPA Thousands of passengers were left waiting in Madrid 's Atocha station on Sunday evening after the network was hit was delays. Mexican tourist Alberto Valero and his family spent hours stranded at the station due to delays on the Madrid–Seville train line. Valero said: 'We're here with tourists from everywhere - France, Portugal. "Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' Read more Spain Train services on numerous lines of the high-speed network were suspended. Nine trains were even left stranded between stations, with many passengers forced to spend the night onboard, according to interviews on Spain's state broadcaster TVE. On Monday morning, only a few trains left Madrid for Toledo, as services to cities further south, like Seville and Malaga, were still suspended, Spain's railway infrastructure company ADIF said on X. The train connecting Madrid and cities in the South was expected to resume service at around 9.30am on Monday, ADIF said. Most read in The Sun The railway company said its staff were working to replace the stolen cables and reestablish the service. The network links most major cities but is exposed to cable thefts as it runs through vast, empty countryside. Spain and Portugal power outage – Sweeping blackouts shut down internet & grind transport to a halt It comes after Spain and Portugal were Spain's Interior Ministry In Madrid, emergency crews carried out 286 rescues to free people trapped in lifts, while passengers in Portugal were forced to flee darkened underground tunnels. Traffic lights failed, mobile networks collapsed, and desperate residents queued outside shops, petrol stations and banks to grab supplies and cash. Airports in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona ground to a halt, with hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of British tourists stranded. Hundreds of passengers were also left Spain 's transport minister said 11 trains remained stranded with passengers on board on Tuesday, nearly nine hours after the blackout. At least five people are known to have The blackout was dubbed the worst in European history - eclipsing the 2003 outage that hit 56 million people in Italy and Switzerland. 4 The aftershocks of Spain's blackout are being felt Credit: EPA
The Sun
05-05-2025
- The Sun
Travel chaos in Spain as trains halted and passengers hit with delays after cable theft – days after power outage
THIEVES have stolen copper cables from Spain's high-speed train network - suspending services, stranding thousands at stations and leaving passengers stuck on trains overnight. The theft targeted line cables in four spots within a 6-mile stretch between Madrid and Seville - Transport Minister Oscar Puente called it a 'serious act of sabotage' on X. 4 4 4 Thousands of passengers were left waiting in Madrid's Atocha station on Sunday evening after the network was hit was delays. Mexican tourists, Alberto Valero and his family, had to spend hours at the station due to the delays on the train line connecting Madrid to their destination of Seville. He said: 'We're here with tourists from everywhere - France, Portugal. "Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray.' Train services on numerous lines of the high-speed network were suspended. Nine trains were even left stranded between stations, with many passengers forced to spend the night onboard, according to interviews on state broadcaster TVE. On Monday morning, only a few trains left Madrid for Toledo, as services to cities further south, like Seville and Malaga, were still suspended, Spain 's railway infrastructure company ADIF said on X. The train connecting Madrid and cities in the South was expected to resume service at around 9.30am, ADIF said. The railway company said its staff were working to replace the stolen cables and reestablish the service. The network links most major cities but is exposed to cable thefts as it runs through vast, empty countryside. Spain and Portugal power outage – Sweeping blackouts shut down internet & grind transport to a halt It comes after Spain and Portugal were plunged into blackout on Monday - affecting more than 55 million people and lasting more than half a day. Spain's Interior Ministry declared a national emergency and deployed 30,000 police to maintain order as both governments held emergency cabinet meetings. In Madrid, emergency crews carried out 286 rescues to free people trapped in lifts, while passengers in Portugal were forced to flee darkened underground tunnels. Traffic lights failed, mobile networks collapsed, and desperate residents queued outside shops, petrol stations and banks to grab supplies and cash. Airports in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona ground to a halt, with hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of British tourists stranded. Hundreds of passengers were also left trapped on trains. Spain's transport minister said 11 trains remained stranded with passengers on board on Tuesday, nearly nine hours after the blackout. At least five people are known to have lost their lives to various tragedies in the 24 hours of the blackout. The blackout was dubbed the worst in European history - eclipsing the 2003 outage that hit 56 million people in Italy and Switzerland. 4
Metro
05-05-2025
- Metro
Thousands of passengers stranded after theft grounds trains to halt
Cable theft forced trains to stop in central Spain, upending the Monday commute for thousands of passengers. Thieves wreaked havoc on the high-speed line between Madrid and Seville after stealing vital cable from the signalling system across four locations. The theft happened late yesterday evening, affecting dozens of trains between Spain's capital and Andalucia during peak return travel after the Labour Day weekend. Thousands of passengers were eagerly waiting for updates after spending hours on the station floors and trying to get information from rail staff. Footage shows frustrated passengers gathering at Madrid's Atochat station today to try find out what was happening with their trains. Renfe, the train operator, told passengers to not arrive too early to avoid further crowds. One passenger posted on X that his train was scheduled to leave Sevilla shortly before 9pm yesterday. Instead, the train arrived to Madrid at 6.3am today. He claimed they spent '10 hours on a train that ran out of food and water after half an hour.' A typical train journey takes between the cities usually takes just under three hours. Alberto Valero, a tourist from Mexico, told the AP news agency him and his family had spent hours at Madrid station due to the issue. He said: 'We're here with tourists from everywhere — France, Portugal. 'Everyone is at a loss for what to do because of the total disarray. More Trending ADIF, the company owning Spain's railway infrastructure, said on X the theft happened at four points on the line in Toledo. It hoped services to resume from around 9.30am between Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Granada. Today's train chaos comes after life in Spain and Portugal was severely disrupted last week after massive power outages lasting for days. At least five people were killed in the unprecedented blackout, which turned Madrid dark as the Spanis grid lost 60% of its power, with national emergency declared. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Dad-of-three, 42, dies after touching down on 'last-minute' trip to Benidorm MORE: Map shows VE Day 2025 parade route through central London MORE: Manhunt for relatives of children inside of 'House of Horrors' continues
