Today's Edition
MADRID (AFP)
Emergency services workers carried out 286 rescue operations on Monday to free people trapped inside elevators in Spain's Madrid region during a nationwide blackout, the head of the regional government said.
Power went out across Spain and Portugal on Monday, halting train traffic, clogging roads, stopping metro trains and trapping people in elevators before electricity started to return to some areas after hours of disruption.
"What we are now dealing with more frequently are cases of people trapped in lifts. We have received 286 requests" for help, the head of the regional government of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, said during an interview with private television station Antena 3.
The Spanish capital's vast metro system which moves some two million people daily was evacuated "without incident", she added.
One man posted a video on social media saying the blackout trapped him in a lift without coverage for around 40 minutes.
"By hitting the door and shouting a neighbour heard me and informed the municipal police," who came half an hour later to free him, he said.
Spain and Portugal have a highly integrated energy grid that operates as an energy island and is linked to the rest of Europe through a small number of cross-border interconnections with France.
