Some of Spain and Portugal's largest cities have been hit by a massive power outage leaving millions without electricity.
Extreme temperature changes have been suggested as a potential cause of outages, with grid operators beginning work to restore power.
Residents of Andorra and parts of France bordering Spain have also reported being hit by the blackout.
CGTN reporter Rahul Pathak has more details.
Extreme temperature changes have been suggested as a potential cause of outages, with grid operators beginning work to restore power.
Residents of Andorra and parts of France bordering Spain have also reported being hit by the blackout.
CGTN reporter Rahul Pathak has more details.
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00:00Some of Spain and Portugal's largest cities have been hit by a massive power outage, leaving millions without electricity.
00:08A cyber attack has not been ruled out, as grid operators begin work to restore power.
00:14Residents of Andorra and parts of France, bordering Spain, have also reported being hit by the blackouts.
00:20Well, our correspondent Rahul Pathak is following the story for us here.
00:24And of course, Rahul, you were our Madrid correspondent, this network's Madrid correspondent for many years,
00:28so you know this region really well. Just how big is this outage?
00:31It's absolutely huge, Paul. I mean, as you said, the main countries to be affected are Spain and Portugal,
00:35but parts of France and Belgium have also been hit.
00:38The blackout has caused huge disruption to things like airports, telecommunications, transport systems,
00:45mainly across the Iberian Peninsula.
00:47Now, the two major airports in Spain and Portugal, so that's Madrid's Barajas International Airport
00:51and Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport, have both been forced to close.
00:56The metro systems in both Madrid and Lisbon have also ground to a halt,
01:00so you can imagine the chaos, you're seeing the pictures of the chaos now,
01:03imagine the chaos that's causing, because remember, Monday is the beginning of the working week
01:07for people in Spain and Portugal.
01:09And in fact, Spanish radio were reporting that part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated.
01:14And we're looking at these images now of huge traffic jams in the Spanish capital,
01:18because the traffic lights basically have stopped working.
01:20Now, as you were saying, I was a Madrid correspondent for CGTN for three years.
01:25Traffic is horrendous at the best of times in Madrid, so I can only imagine the chaos that this is causing right now.
01:30The major hospitals have also been affected, emergency scheduled surgeries have had to be cancelled,
01:36and authorities in both countries are pleading with the public not to dial the emergency services
01:41unless it's absolutely necessary, because frankly, right now, they're at serious risk of being overwhelmed.
01:46Now, in terms of the chaos, in terms of when it's going to end, it's unlikely to be any time soon.
01:52Officials say restoring power to the Spanish electric grid could take between six and ten hours.
01:57The Portuguese have yet to put a timescale on when they can restore power.
02:00So, a lot of chaos, and quite frightening for people as well,
02:03not knowing the scale of this, or why this has happened, or how this has happened.
02:07Do we know anything yet about what might have caused this?
02:10In a word, no. I mean, it's still a very confused picture,
02:13so it's hard to pinpoint exactly what the reason is.
02:16I mean, there's a lot of speculation going on right now.
02:19Investigations are ongoing, but as you mentioned in your intro,
02:22the Reuters news agency are saying that a possible cyber attack hasn't been ruled out,
02:26but, of course, it's very, very early on.
02:28Spanish media are also saying the issues with the European electric grid
02:31was affecting national systems,
02:33while Portugal's national grid operator, REN,
02:36say a fire in southwest France damaged a high voltage line,
02:40and they said that could possibly also be a factor.
02:42Now, both the Spanish and Portuguese governments have held emergency cabinet meetings,
02:47and the European Commission said it's in contact with the governments of both countries
02:50to assess the situation, but it's a very fast-moving, very confused picture right now.
02:54Well, you're keeping a very close eye on it for us.
02:56Thank you so much for that.