Chaos as large parts of Spain and Portugal hit by massive power outage

The countries have been plunged into darkness

The operator of the Spanish power grid, Red Electrica, confirmed that there had been a power outage and that it is working to restore electricity supplies and is working to analyse the causes of the blackouts.

It said on X: "All resources are being dedicated to solving it."

Major Spanish cities including Seville, Barcelona and Valencia are currently without electricity with population centres grinding to a standstill.

Renfe, Spain's national railway operator, said that the "entire National Electricity Grid was cut off" at 12:30 local time (11:30 BST).

It's said that all trains have been stopped and all stations are without departures.

Meanwhile parts of France have also been said to have been affected, according to Spanish reports.

Parts of Madrid's underground have been evacuated and traffic lights across the city have stopped working, leading to travel chaos.

Other reports say telephone lines are down across the country.

The effects of the outage are so large that the annual clay court tennis tournament, the Madrid Open, has had to be suspended with British player, Jacob Fearnley having to leave the court mid-match.

Over in Portugal, official sources have told domestic media that the outage is nationwide.

Air travel in Spain and Portugal could yet be affected with many systems likely to have gone down with the outage.

Flight Radar 24 have reported so far that they are yet to see any effect this far, fortunately.

This is a breaking news story, updates to follow.