Day of chaos 'People began to get a bit paranoid'

It was the moment the lights went out. In a post-match interview, after her straight sets win to reach the last eight of the Madrid Open, the American tennis star Coco Gauff was joking about her avocado toast breakfast and bad night's sleep, when suddenly the microphone cut. She looked surprised, while behind her the LED ad boards turned black.

- Ashifa Kassam Madrid Jennifer Rankin Jakub Krupa

It was just after midday and all across the Iberian peninsula the electricity supply was failing. Buses and trains stopped; cash machines went dark; people were left trapped in unlit metro carriages and lifts, with no certainty about when they would get out.

Madrid residents packed into outdoor terraces and gathered around radios trying to figure out what was happening. Cars got stuck because there were no lights to guide the traffic. Sirens blared constantly as police cars and ambulances tried to make their way through jam-packed streets.

One officer told the Guardian the Madrid metro came to a dead stop and people had to be pulled out of carriages. Carlos Condori, a 19-year-old construction sector worker, said his train had managed to crawl to a platform. "People were stunned because this had never happened in Spain," he told AFP. "There's no [phone] coverage, I can't call my family, my parents, nothing: I can't even go to work."

In the Spanish capital, neighbours spilled out of their homes, mingling with workers from offices and stores, trading stories. Most assumed it was a localised power cut that would be restored swiftly. They were wrong.