Spain and Portugal blackouts caused by 'rare atmospheric phenomenon' as millions without power

More than 50 million people, alongside businesses, airlines and telecoms providers across and were left without power today following what authorities have termed a "rare atmospheric phenomenon". were initially feared to have been the result of a but the feared cause was ruled out by Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro this afternoon,

He said there was "no indication" the outages were caused by a deliberate act. He told journalists it "did not originate in Portugal" not long after Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) Portugal's power grid operator, claimed this afternoon it was the result of a "rare atmospheric phenomenon" hitting the European network in Spain.

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REN representatives said this afternoon that "extreme temperature variations in the interior or Spain" caused what it termed "anomalous oscillations" in very high voltage lines on the country's network. The phenomenon, representatives added, was termed "induced atmospheric vibration", and are said to have caused massive electrical systems failures in Spain that exploded across Europe.

The network operators said: "These oscillations caused synchronisation failures between the electrical systems, leading to successive disturbances across the interconnected European network."

REN's explanation has not yet been accepted as the definite cause of the blackouts just yet, however, with Spain yet to comment on the claims from the Portuguese operator. European Council president António Costa said on the sidelines of a trip to Bulgaria that a cause of the shutdown has not been identified.

He said: "For the time being, they have not identified the cause of this shutdown, but they are working to supply the energy. He added: "They have not … identified the cause, but there is no evidence that it was a cyber-attack,” he said, before adding: “For the time being, we need to wait.”

REN added in its explanation that it could take up to a week for the local network to return to full capacity, although it did not explain how many people would continue to be affected beyond today.

But Prime Minister Montenegro said before meeting with REN representatives that he expected electrical power in Portugal would return to normal "in the coming hours".

Meanwhile, says the widespread blackouts are affecting its operations. A statement reads: “Power outages in Portugal and Spain are impacting access to some airports and affecting some airports operations including Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona.

"Like all airlines, we are experiencing some disruption to our flying programme meaning that some return flights from Lisbon and Madrid have been unable to operate," the airline said, adding: "Our flying programme at Porto and Faro airports is operating as planned."