Spain declares state of emergency in eight regions following unprecedented blackout in Europe
Due to an unprecedented power grid failure, Spain’s Minister of the Interior has declared a national state of emergency affecting eight autonomous regions.
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Spain’s Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, declared a national state of emergency in eight autonomous communities across the country.
The decision came after a massive blackout disrupted critical infrastructure across the Iberian part of Spain and also affected Portugal and parts of France.
The affected regions include: Andalusia, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Murcia, and Valencia. According to the minister, the emergency was declared in response to requests from local authorities and in accordance with the Civil Protection Act.
The power grid failure occurred around 12:30 p.m., leaving millions of people without electricity.
As a result, transportation, communication, hospitals, educational institutions, and government services were paralyzed. Some facilities — particularly hospitals — were able to continue limited operations using backup generators.
Later in the evening, the Ministry of the Interior held an emergency coordination meeting involving representatives from the Interior Ministry, security forces, military, and key ministries and regional authorities.
The cause of the outage remains unknown. The operator, Red Eléctrica de España, called the incident “exceptional and unprecedented.” Power restoration has begun but is expected to be gradual and prolonged.
It was previously reported that a major power failure in Europe led to widespread blackouts in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France, disrupting transport and healthcare services.
A rare atmospheric phenomenon with extreme temperature fluctuations caused a simultaneous grid failure in Spain and Portugal, leading to a large-scale blackout that may take up to a week to fully resolve.