Gibraltar hit by total power outage after contractor-damaged cables

Gibraltar experienced a total power outage on Tuesday afternoon after damage to cables caused by a contractor, the territory's authorities said, leaving residents trapped in lifts and emergency services overwhelmed with calls.

The Gibraltar Fire and Rescue Services said its control room had received a "substantial number of calls from persons trapped in lifts" and that crews were being redeployed across the territory to respond. The Gibraltar Electricity Authority posted on the X social network that engineers were working to restore supply.

A Gibraltar-bound British Airways flight from London Heathrow was diverted to Malaga; the airline had not confirmed whether the diversion was related to the power failure. Local authorities did not provide an immediate timetable for a full restoration of electricity.

Officials described the outage as the result of damage caused by a contractor. Emergency personnel said they were attending numerous incidents across the densely populated British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of Spain, and warned that calls to emergency services had surged as residents reported being trapped in elevators and other power-dependent locations.

Gibraltar suffered a sweeping electricity failure earlier this year that affected large parts of the Iberian Peninsula. In April, a broad outage disrupted businesses, hospitals, transit systems and cellular networks across Spain and Portugal and led to the evacuation of roughly 35,000 passengers from more than 100 trains when services stalled on tracks.

Spain's government released a report in June that attributed the April blackout to a miscalculation by the transmission operator Redeia and to a failure by some conventional power plants to help maintain required voltage levels. The government said those conditions contributed to a surge in voltage that triggered a cascade of disconnections across the grid. Authorities have not linked Tuesday's localized outage in Gibraltar to the April continental event.

Local emergency teams said they remained on scene attending to those trapped and to other incidents that have arisen since the power failed. The Gibraltar Electricity Authority said engineers were working to trace and repair the damaged cables; it provided no estimate for when normal service would resume.

The territory's government and utility operators have been issuing updates on social media and through emergency channels as they coordinate response efforts. Transport, health and commercial services could be affected while repairs proceed, but officials have not reported major injuries or fatalities related to the outage.

The incident is under active investigation by Gibraltar authorities, and further details on the cause, scale of damage and restoration plan were expected as engineers completed assessments. This is a breaking story and more information may follow as officials release updates.