Spain and Portugal have been hit by a massive power outage that has caused blackouts, Spain’s electricity network operator has said.

The Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica said it had activated plans to restore the supply, with “all resources dedicated to solving” the disruption. It said the Iberian peninsula, with a combined population of more than 50 million people, had been affected.

Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE said the outage had hit several regions of the country at about 12.30pm local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain’s parliament in Madrid and metro stations across the country in the dark. People in neighbourhood WhatsApp chats in Barcelona and cities and towns in its outskirts also reported the outage.

Spain and Portugal have been hit by a massive power outage that has caused blackouts, Spain’s electricity network operator has said. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images

Listed below are the holiday hotspots that are reported to have been hit by the power outage.

Madrid
Barcelona
Seville
Valencia
Estepona
Marbella
Fuengirola
Malaga
Granada
Pamplona

E-Redes, a Spanish electricity grid monitoring company, said in a statement it was working on reestablishing connection in phases, adding that it is a “wider European problem”. Traffic lights in Madrid are not working, the Reuters news agency reports, while Spanish radio says parts of the underground railway system in the city are being evacuated.

Madrid's Barajas international airport was left without power, while telecommunications have been affected as well. Meanwhile, other airports have come to a standstill throughout the region. Numerous passengers have been left stranded in the metros in the Spanish and Portuguese capitals, with trains stuck in the tunnels between stations, Euronews Portugal reports.

Spain power outage: Which Spanish holiday hotspots have been hit as more than 50 million affected across Iberian Peninsula - see full list

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