The tragic consequences of the energy collapse that occurred on April 28 took the lives of at least five Spanish citizens, snob.ru reports with reference to El País. Law enforcement agencies have initiated an investigation into the incident, not ruling out the possibility of a targeted cyberattack or sabotage.
According to El País, three members of a family died in the province of Ourense from carbon monoxide poisoning, presumably due to a faulty emergency generator. In Valencia, an elderly woman died after her life support depended on an oxygen machine that stopped working when the power went out. Another tragedy occurred in Madrid, where a woman died in a fire that was probably started by a candle used for lighting.
The unprecedented power failure affected not only the territory of Spain, but also the neighboring countries of Portugal, France and Andorra. The consequences of the accident paralyzed transport systems, disrupted communications and stopped the work of many industrial facilities. The restoration of power supply in full was completed only by the morning of the following day.
Spain's National Court is considering various hypotheses about the causes of the incident, including the possibility of a deliberate attack on critical infrastructure. However, representatives of the energy operator Red Eléctrica have categorically denied the version of a cyber attack.
According to the Europa Press news agency, the country's power grid immediately lost about 15 gigawatts of power at the time of the accident, which is about 60% of its total energy consumption. The complete power outage lasted five seconds, which is unprecedented in the history of Spanish energy. Judge José Luis Calama ordered the National Cryptologic Center, together with the company Red Eléctrica, to submit a comprehensive report on the causes of the catastrophic failure within ten days.
