Hundreds of thousands of people have run out of light in a blackout which has affected several countries in Europe.
Spain and other countries Portugal and France have suffered around 12.30 noon a massive electric blackout due to causes that are still unknown. In Spain, the blackout has affected all Spanish provinces except the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and Baleares. The most affected are Madrid, Galicia, Extremadura and Catalonia.
The blackout has occurred when the high voltage network for safety is cut, measure known as “electric zero”. In addition, the Spanish electricity grid, the state company responsible for ensuring the electricity supply, says that the blackout is exceptional and totally extraordinary and will take between six and 10 hours to be fixed.
Airports continue to work, but flights have some delays, banks continue to operate, while hospitals stopped all non -urgent operations.
The Portugal Ren Network operator said that “electrical supplies interruptions in Portugal were the result of a failure in the Spanish electricity grid, related to a rare atmospheric phenomenon.” Although the first cyber attack hypothesis is not entirely discarded. However, in Spain it is still an unconfirmed hypothesis.
The electrical failure has caused the collapse of hundreds of factories and productive centers and transport networks such as Barajas and the Madrid Metro. Telephone connections are also being altered.
Some drivers are reporting accidents on many roads, given the lack of operation of the traffic lights to the cities. A taxi driver who returned from leaving a customers in the Magic Box, the place where Madrid Open of Tennis is celebrated, says he has already witnessed several accidents caused by the clash of vehicles that have skipped the traffic lights for failures in the system.
Cases of people trapped in elevators have also been reported, tunnels and the subway.
Companies like Petronor say that they have stopped the plant in safe conditions and all emergency systems are working properly.
For its part, Civil Protection of the Generalitat has reported that the 112 emergency service has received “many calls” of users alerting incidents in the electricity supply and has asked that only strictly essential, according to Eric Galián from Barcelona, be carried out.
The emergency agency has also reported that Tarragona’s chemical companies have activated the torch system to burn chemicals safely. They are also doing the nuclear. Chemical companies have reported that until now they work under security and incident criteria.
The Metro and Tram de Barcelona service has been suspended, like the Railroads lines of the Generalitat, FGC, which has evicted trains in tunnels and urban areas.
The streets of Barcelona show an unusual appearanceeither. Many people and professionals have taken to the streets running out of light in their offices and form small groups commenting on the blackout. You can also see groups peel on terraces and balconies, waiting for the electricity supply to return.
At the height of the diagonal, In the center of Barcelona, traffic problems are not reported, since traffic lights work normally, but not in other areas of the city.
In Bilbao, the situation was similar Although the electricity supply has been restoring in some areas from 14 hours.
