‘Extremely rare weather phenomenon’ behind Europe power cuts - as Portugal blames 'fault' in Spanish network

• Spanish government says it is "making every effort" to resolve the massive blackout
• Multiple airlines report disruptions to services
• Lisbon metro completely stopped
• Most of Spain’s traffic signalling goes offline sparking chaos
• Madrid Metro evacuated
• Telephone lines across Spain go down

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Portugal's grid operator, REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional) claimed interruptions to the country's power supply were the result of a "fault in the Spanish electricity grid".

They said this was related to a "rare atmospheric phenomenon", namely "extreme temperature variations".

Due to these variations in the interior or Spain, there were "anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 KV), which is a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'".

"These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network."

Spain has yet to respond to the claim.

REN added that normalisation of the system could take up to a week.

Earlier, it was claimed by the head of Spain's electricity network restoring power could take around six to 10 hours.

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Entire airports and metro systems have come to a halt due to the outage.

Barajas Airport in Madrid remains without power while the Valencia metro suspended all services.

Metrovalencia, which encompasses both metro and tram services in Valencia, said there was disruption due to a "general power outage".

It added: "The extent and duration of the outage are unknown."

Spain's national rail operator, Renfe, said no single service had been able to leave stations following the outage.

Parts of Madrid underground have been evacuated and traffic lights in the city are not working, local media reported.

Phone lines are down across the country too.

There are also reports of outages in France and Germany.

France's grid operator RTE issued a statement saying parts of the country briefly lost power.

Madrid's mayor warned residents to stay put during the outage.

Sharing a video on social media, José Luis Martínez-Almeida said: "I ask all residents of Madrid to keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are. We want to keep all roads clear."

He asked residents to only call emergency services if it is "truly urgent", adding: "If emergency calls go unanswered, go to the police and the fire stations in person, where they will try to deal with all the emergencies which may present themselves."

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Sports events have been impacted too, with the Madrid Open having been suspended.

British tennis player Jacob Fearnley was forced to leave the court mid-match after the loss of power affected the scoreboards and a camera above the court.

The moment the outage happened was caught on camera at the Open, with the mic dying during an interview with Coco Gauff.

Red Eléctrica, Spain's national grid operator, said it was working to restore power following a system failure across the entire peninsula.

"The causes are being analysed and all resources are being dedicated to resolving it," the operator explained.

Speaking at a press conference, CEO Eduardo Prieto said it could take "between six and 10 hours" to solve the issue.

The Spanish government has convened a crisis meeting due to outage, according to the El Pais paper.

"A crisis committee has been set up to manage the situation [in Spain]. At this stage there’s no evidence yet regarding the cause of the massive blackout," an official briefed on the situation said.

"A cyberattack has not been ruled out and investigations are ongoing."

In Portugal, a country of some 10.6 million people, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country.

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, according to Expresso.

Portugal's national electric company, REN, said a fire in the south-west of France may be the cause of the outage.

The fire damaged a high-voltage power line between Perpignan and eastern Narbonne.

Jack is on the west coast of Portugal - and told LBC of an "eerie atmosphere" in the shops.

"We have lost power and lost water, most about an hour now. But we've found a nice little local supermarket," he said.

"There's a group of nine of us, and we've stocked up on water and food. We're holding out for information because we haven't had any yet."

Power in the UK remains unaffected but the situation is being monitored closely, NESO (National Energy System Operator) said.

Craig Dyke, Director of System Operations, said: "Great Britain's electricity network continues to operate as normal, we are monitoring the situation closely and are liaising with our counterparts in neighbouring European countries to offer any assistance that may be required."