Power returns to Spain, Portugal after massive blackout

Lights flickered back to life in Spain and Portugal yesterday after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators while millions saw phone and internet coverage die.

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MADRID (AFP) - Lights flickered back to life in Spain and Portugal yesterday after a massive blackout hit the Iberian peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators while millions saw phone and internet coverage die.

Electricity had been restored to more than 90 percent of mainland Spain early Tuesday, the REE power operator said. Lights came on again in Madrid and in Portugal's capital.

Barely a corner of the peninsula, which has a joint population of almost 60 million people, escaped the blackout. But no firm cause for the shutdown has yet emerged, though wild rumors spread on messaging networks about cyber attacks.