Millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France were left without power on Monday in an unprecedented blackout, halting trains, grounding flights, and crippling major cities like Madrid, Lisbon, and Barcelona.

Spain's grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) warned that full restoration could take six to ten hours. The disruption suspended matches at the Madrid Open, brought metro systems to a standstill, and forced drivers to navigate powerless traffic lights. Mobile networks collapsed, sending citizens into the streets in search of connectivity.

France's grid operator RTE reported brief outages, while Portugal's REN blamed a “European electricity system” failure, suggesting the source lay outside Portugal. Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez rushed to REE headquarters for updates as authorities scrambled to stabilize the grid. Investigations are ongoing into the mysterious cause behind one of Europe's largest blackouts in recent memory.