Spain, Portugal restore power, still no explanation on what caused blackout

Power is back on in Spain and Portugal, after the European countries experienced the worst blackout in their history.

Residents are returning to normal life, but authorities have yet to say what caused the blackout.

Lee Eun-jin reports.

Power was restored to normal in Spain and Portugal by 11am on Tuesday, local time, after they experienced one of Europe's most severe blackouts.

Despite the recovery, both Spain and Portugal remained in a state of emergency on Tuesday.

A sudden loss of 15 gigawatts of power in a matter of five seconds around noon on Monday, local time triggered the blackout, but authorities are yet to give an explanation into what caused this sudden loss of power.

When the power failure struck around noon on Monday, airports, railways, traffic and hospitals were paralyzed and phone services and ATMs were shut down.

Emergency workers in Spain said they had rescued around 35-thousand passengers on Monday stranded along railways and the underground rail system.

The Spanish national electricity system operator had detected two incidents of power generation loss that could have caused the energy instability. And while the agency ruled out cyber-attack as the cause,

Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez said the government would not rush to conclusions in finding out what happened in those five seconds.

Lee Eunjin, Arirang News.