Paris blackout halts metros, darkens streets as thousands lose power
A power outage hit parts of Paris and Hauts-de-Seine on Thursday morning, cutting electricity to thousands of homes and briefly stopping metro services and traffic lights
 "Paris blackout halts metros, darkens streets as thousands lose power")
A power outage struck parts of Paris and the neighbouring Hauts-de-Seine area on Thursday morning (local time), leaving around 55,000 homes without electricity, according to a report by Euro News.
Streetlights and traffic signals went dark across several neighbourhoods, creating early-morning disruptions. French company Enedis told French daily Le Parisien that the outage was short-lived as "it lasted five minutes" but power was still not fully restored in some places by 7 am.
Issue linked to technical fault
The blackout was caused by a technical problem at an RTE substation in Issy-les-Moulineaux. RTE, which manages France’s high-voltage electricity network, said, "This is a technical incident at the RTE substation in Issy-les-Moulineaux involving 200 megawatts," and apologised for the disruption.
By 7:10 am (11:40 am IST), about 55,000 homes were still without power. The number fell quickly, dropping to 2,600 affected homes by 7:50 am as restoration work continued in southern Paris and Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Transport and city services disrupted
Besides homes, the outage hit key city services. Traffic lights and street lights went off, and some metro and suburban train services came to a halt.
Enedis reiterated that the blackout lasted “around five minutes”, though a few thousand homes remained impacted for longer.
Chaos on Metro Line 12
The power cut also caused major delays on the Paris Metro. Line 12 stopped operating temporarily, with the RATP announcing on X: "Trains are stopped along the entire line due to a power failure."
Services resumed after 7 am, bringing an end to the brief rush-hour chaos.