26-05-2025
Power cut hits France's Nice in second suspected sabotage after Cannes film festival blackout
A second power outage on Sunday in France's Riviera region in two days after a fire at a substation in Nice is being suspected to be a sabotage, which authorities say could be a malicious attack. Reports suggest at least 45,000 homes were affected due to the fire at Nice substation which led to electricity cut in the region at around 2am (local time).
This comes a day after nearby French city Cannes suffered a massive blackout that was also blamed on suspected sabotage. Local media reports, quoting police officials, stated that 'tyre tracks' were found and the Nice substation, which is located in the west of the city, door was 'broken'.
After the outage in Nice on Sunday midnight, the city's airport, tramway network, and neighbouring towns of Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer were affected till the electricity was restored later in the morning.
Cette nuit, un transformateur électrique a été incendié à l'ouest de #nice06, privant d'électricité près de 45 000 personnes de Nice à Cagnes. Les polices nationale et municipale sont mobilisées. La situation a été rétablie dans de très brefs délais. Je dénonce avec force ces…
— Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) May 25, 2025
Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi criticised the suspected sabotage act of power outage and fire at the city's substation 'strongly denounced' the 'malicious acts' that affects the country.
Cette nuit un incendie, probablement d'origine criminelle, a endommagé un transformateur @enedis. 45.000 foyers sur qnic3, Saint Laurent du Var et Cagnes-sur-Mer, l'aéroport et le réseau de transport ont été impactés désormais la situation est en cours de reprise. Merci aux…
— Gaël Nofri (@GaelNofri) May 25, 2025
'The national and municipal police were mobilized. The situation was restored very quickly. I strongly denounce these malicious acts that affect our country. We are making images from our monitoring center available to investigators and will strengthen the city's network on strategic electrical sites in the coming days,' Mayor Estrosi said.
While Nice's Deputy Mayor, Gaël Nofri said the fire was 'probably of criminal origin'. This comes a day after Cannes suffered a major blackout during the International Film Festival. Officials have said that it may have been caused due to an arson attack on a substation.
A BBC report stated that about 160,000 homes in the city and neighbouring areas lost power amid the outage. Shops and restaurants struggled to operate as the power cut had hit Cannes.
Cannes is in a total slowdown, meltdown, there's no coffee anywhere, and I think the town has run out of croissants, so this is like crisis territory,' Australian producer Darren Vukasinovic said, Reuters reported.
