Large parts of Spain and Portugal hit by power outage

Spanish radio stations said parts of the Madrid underground rail network was being evacuated. There were traffic jams at Madrid city centre as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

E-Redes, a Spanish electricity grid monitoring company, said in a statement it was working on re-establishing connection in phases.

"This is a wider European problem," it added.

The countries have a combined population of over 50 million people. It was not immediately clear how many people are affected.

Spain's public broadcaster RTVE said a major power outage hit several regions at around 12.30pm local time, leaving its newsroom, Spain's parliament in Madrid and metro stations across the country in the dark. 

Spanish newspaper El País said authorities have not ruled out a cyberattack.

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.

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 centre stopped working.

with AP and DPA