The power recovered after the halt was hit by a prominent film festival on the closing day, affecting 160,000 homes in the area.
French police are investigating suspicious arson attacks as the main cause of power outages that have been hit in southern France’s Alpes Extreme Region, including Cannes, which hosts the world-famous annual film festival.
“We are considering the possibility that a fire could be intentionally launched,” a spokesman for the French National Governor said on Saturday, adding that no arrests were made at this stage.
Police sources said the outage was caused by an overnight fire, presumably an arson attack, at a high-voltage substation in the village of Tanneron, which supplies Cannes.
Both the Tanneron Power substation and the Villeneuve-Loubet electric pylon were destroyed overnight, prosecutors and local officials later confirmed.
Local governments in the Alpes-Maritimes area said on Saturday that the western part of the area, including Cannes, is suffering from major power outages.
According to RTE and local officials, the outage that affected 160,000 homes began shortly after local time (08:00 GMT) on Saturday.
Locals cheered loudly, and music was blown up from beachfront speakers as power was restored around 3pm (13:00 GMT).
The traffic lights have been knocked out and businesses have been closed on the main shopping street, their Alpes Mari Chims holiday destination.
Separate blackouts took over the Iberian Peninsula and parts of the southern France on Monday, disrupting critical infrastructure and airport operations. Officials refused to play fouls.
According to RTE, Spain and Portugal suffered a blackout last month, but the Basque Basque country in France saw a blackout that lasted only a few minutes.
The latest suspension took place at the awards ceremony at the Pale des Festival on Saturday night, hours before the closure of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
Despite the blackout, festival organizers previously said they had switched to alternative power supplies, saying they were able to “maintain the events and screenings planned today under normal conditions, including the closing ceremony.”
Two weeks after being politically charged, the ju judge, led by French actor Juliet Binoche, is set to announce the winners of 22 films competing for Palmed or For Best Film.
This year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Gaza’s genocide and US President Donald Trump were the biggest talks at the festival. More than 900 actors and filmmakers have signed an open letter denounced Gaza’s genocide, according to organizers.
Source link
