As Spain continues to recover from a ‘historic’ nationwide blackout, the question on everyone’s lips is ‘what was the cause?’
Rumours among the population are swirling, with theories including an electromagnetic attack by Russia and a cyberattack from North Africa.
READ MORE: Power outage sparks panic buying of food and petrol on Spain’s Costa del Sol
The chaos began at exactly 12.33pm on Monday, when millions of homes and businesses across the Iberian Peninsula suddenly lost power.
Spain was brought to a standstill as the collapse in communications networks sparked travel chaos, with trains and flights delayed, cancelled or diverted.
Meanwhile, banks were forced to close and cash machines were no longer functioning. With no way of communicating with the people, panic buying began to break out as people stocked up on water, toilet rolls, food and petrol.
READ MORE: Emergency declared in eight regions of Spain due to blackout
The roads also descended into carnage as traffic lights stopped working, with many junctions having to be temporarily closed by police.
As of 6am on Tuesday, 99% of the electricity supply was reported to have returned, but the effects of the blackout are still expected to be felt over the coming hours or days.
In an address to the nation overnight, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez branded the outage ‘unprecedented’.
He said the cause remains ‘unknown’ and that ‘all hypotheses remain open’, urging people ‘not to speculate’ while the investigation continues.
As of 8am Tuesday, there is still no official explanation as to what caused the blackout, but full power has been restored.
Rare atmospheric phenomenon is ruled out
Claims that a ‘rare atmospheric event’ was behind the blackout appear to have been ruled out.
The theory came from Portugal’s energy generator Redes Energéticas Nacionais, which blamed the incident on an ‘induced atmospheric phenomenon in the form of a vibration.’
The same agency then later walked back the claim, saying it was not the cause.
Cyberattack fears
Many people believe a cyberattack is behind the blackout.
Andalucia president Juan Manuel Moreno said on Monday that the outage ‘was due to a cyberattack’, citing information from the region’s cybersecurity centre.
It came after Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI) detected ‘significant unusual activity originating from North Africa’ in the days before the blackout, according to sources from the security agency speaking to Servimedia.
However, government minister Teresa Ribera later said from Brussels that ‘for the moment there are no signs of sabotage’.
Prime minister Sanchez also made no reference to an attack and urged people to avoid speculation.
The investigation continues.
