News Update
Spain has declared a state of emergency after a nationwide power blackout hit the nation, leaving roads gridlocked and prompting people into panic-buying.
The country’s Interior Ministry confirmed the new development in a statement and added that the emergency status will be applied in the regions that request it amid fears the chaos could last for days.
The outage has caused confusion across the nation with the interior ministry deploying 30,000 police officers countrywide to maintain security in an evening of darkness.
It comes after huge queues formed outside shops and banks as residents, tourists desperately sought to stockpile essentials and take out cash as they could amid the uncertainty.
Airports have also been hit by the outages, with flights delayed and cancelled and holiday makers in Portugal warned by the country’s flagship airline TAP Air not to travel until further notice.
Trains and metro services were shut down in both Spain and Portugal, with people stuck in tunnels and on railway tracks, forcing evacuations.
So far, Madrid, Andalusia, and Extremadura have asked for the central government to take over public order and other functions.
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez had earlier told reporters that the cause of the unprecedented power outages remain unknown but added power has now been restored to around 60 percent of the country.
Portugal’s acting Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said the country expects to see power fully restored ‘within hours’ – but this may take longer than in Spain, which relies on contributions from France and Morocco, not solely its own resources, as Portugal does.
Pedro Sanchez said in a national address: ‘We do not yet have conclusive information on the reasons for this (power) cut, so I ask the people, as we have done in past crises, to inform themselves through official channels.
‘For the time being, there’s no evidence of any civil protection problems. I repeat, there are no problems of insecurity.’