Great power outage strikes EU country

(MENAFN)
A widespread power outage affected large areas of the Czech Republic on Friday, including the capital, Prague. Authorities have attributed the disruption to a technical malfunction rather than any cyber or terrorist activity.

The blackout began around midday and led to a temporary shutdown of the entire Prague metro system. According to the city’s transport authority, services on the A and C lines were restored within 15 minutes, while the B line resumed after about 30 minutes.

Tram operations on the right bank of the Vltava River were suspended, although those on the left bank continued running. Rail services in the vicinity of Prague and other affected regions also experienced delays and interruptions.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala addressed the situation on social media, confirming the power failure had extended to multiple areas and that steps were being taken to resolve it. CEPS, the national power grid operator, reported outages particularly in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan stated that there was no evidence of a cyberattack or terrorism, pointing instead to a technical issue as the likely source of the failure.

According to CEPS, eight substations were impacted, with five back online by the time of their update. The company continues to investigate the root cause of the blackout.

The outage resulted in several people becoming trapped in elevators across Prague and central Bohemia, prompting emergency service responses.

Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague remained unaffected throughout the incident.

This power failure comes shortly after a larger blackout in Spain and Portugal earlier this year, which was initially suspected to be a cyberattack but was later blamed on a voltage spike. Friday’s outage also followed a heat wave across Europe that had put extra strain on power grids, though Prague’s temperature had dropped to 25°C (77°F) from a peak of 34°C (93°F) the day before.

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