April 28 (UPI) — Spain and Portugal declared a state of emergency after an all-encompassing power failure struck those nations as well as Belgium, Andorra and France.

As of around 12:30 p.m. local time, issues with the European electric grid were reported. Power went out across most of the Iberian Peninsula, affecting 48.4 million people in Spain and 10.6 million in Portugal. Parts of southwest France’s Basque Country also briefly lost electricity.

In a state of emergency, regions can ask the central government to take over public order and other things.

There was a “technical issue” when the Spanish grid was disconnected from the broader European one, a European trade body told the BBC’s The World Tonight. Kristian Ruby, the general secretary of EURELECTRIC, described the outage as a “50-year, if not 100-year incident….something very very rare.”

Ruby added: “Now, judging from that situation alone, you wouldn’t think that would cause a power cut across the entire Iberian peninsula, so my assessment is there is likely to have been other elements in this equation that have caused this situation.”

As of 11 p.m., 51% of Spain’s electricity was restored and 70% of substations were back up.

Those without power were plunged into darkness.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said “a long night lies ahead” but to fully expect power to be restored Tuesday.

“The situation is very asymmetrical across the country,” he said. “Some autonomous communities have already recovered up to 97% of their supply, while others, unfortunately, are below 15%.”

He said authorities have not determined why the outage occurred.

Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said there was “no indication” it was caused by a cyber attack. Portugal’s National Energy Network said earlier Monday it could take a week to return the full grid to normal.

Late afternoon, power operator REN said electricity was back for 2.5 million customers in Portugal.

Life drastically affected

Impacted hospitals have reportedly canceled surgeries, and Internet and mobile phone networks have also been affected.

Transportation has also been widely impacted, with trains trapped in tunnels between stations. Late Monday afternoon, Transport Minister Oscar Puente said 11 trains were stopped on tracks.

Puente said medium- and long-distance trains will be out until Tuesday.

Madrid’s Barajas International Airport and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado were closed. Air traffic control towers had battery power and generators.

Gas stations without generators were closed.

“I was driving and suddenly there was no traffic lights … It was a bit of a jungle,” Luis Ibanez Jimenez told CNN. “I saw a massive bus coming, and I had to accelerate a lot to go past it.”

The few open businesses only accepted cash.

The power outages impacted the 2025 Madrid Open, forcing the suspension of matches on Monday, officials said.

Help provided

France’s RTE transmission system operator announced it has mobilized teams to provide assistance.

Spain’s Interior Ministry deployed 30,000 officers for security concerns and roads where traffic signals were not working.

Madrid’s firefighters handled 174 “elevator interventions.”

The European Union, in a statement, said it was “in contact with the national authorities of Spain and Portugal as well as (European electricity transmission system operators’ network) ENTSO-E to understand the underlying cause and the impact of the situation.”

“As per EU legislation in place … there are protocols in place to restore the functioning of the system,” the statement read.