A blackout has brought much of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, affecting millions of people. The Spanish power distributor calls it “exceptional and extraordinary."

A major power outage has been reported in Spain and Portugal, including their capitals. Spanish generator RedElectrica said Monday the Iberian peninsula was affected, saying the incident is being assessed and responded to. The company said in a social media post that it was beginning to restore power in the north and south of the country.

MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) -Power started returning to parts of the Iberian peninsula late on Monday after a huge outage brought parts of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport,