Spain and Portugal hit by nationwide power outages

Spain and Portugal have been hit by a power outage covering wide areas across the two countries. Capitals Madrid and Lisbon are included in the outages as grid operators work to resolve the issue.

Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said it was working with energy companies to restore power in affected areas.

Parts of France may also be affected, Spanish media has reported, alongside large Spanish cities like Seville, Barcelona and Valencia. Reports also indicate that telephone lines are down in parts of the country.

Spain's public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions of the country at around 12:30 p.m. local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain's parliament in Madrid and metro stations across the country in the dark.

Spanish radio network Cadena Ser reports that prime minister Pedro Sánchez is on his way to Red Electrica headquarters to assess the situation.

The grid operator has confirmed on social media that the process of regaining power in the country will now be “gradual” as its engineers work on the grid in the north and south of the country.

Local media in Madrid says that parts of the underground metro have been evacuated and roads cleared as traffic lights in the city have stopped working.

Social media footage from Malaga, on Spain’s south coast, also shows metro passengers forced to walk inside the tunnel as carriages are evacuated.

The ongoing Madrid Open tennis tournament has also suspended matches for the time being.

People in neighborhood WhatsApp chats in Barcelona and outskirts cities and towns also reported the outage.

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 stabilize the network, according to Expresso. E-Redes said parts of France also were affected.

It was not possible to make calls on mobile phone networks, though some apps were working. Unconfirmed news reports said the Lisbon subway stopped running. Traffic lights in the city center stopped working.

This is a breaking news story and will be regularly updated with more details...