Sabotage due to the blackout in southern France
For five hours, 160,000 homes have been in the dark in the border area with Italy, including in the Cannes area.
Cannes / BarcelonaShortly after 10:00 a.m., a total blackout occurred at the Cannes Film Festival, the most important European film event, which hundreds of international journalists were covering. Mobile phone signals immediately went down as well. To everyone's astonishment, the blackout revealed itself to be a massive power outage across the western region of the Alpes-Maritimes, in southeastern France. It left 160,000 homes in the dark in the area bordering Italy and also affected rail transport. Firefighters also had to carry out hundreds of interventions, primarily to rescue people trapped in elevators. The outage lasted about five hours and authorities consider it sabotage. The French Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation.
The blackout occurred when a high-voltage tower lost stability in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet. French electricity company RTE was unable to react to prevent the power outage because the power grid was already damaged by a fire that burned through an electrical substation in Tanneron, west of Cannes, on Friday night. French authorities believe the two incidents were intentional and may be linked. Flammable material was found inside the substation, which may have helped spread the flames. As for the high-voltage tower, one of its four legs was sawed off.
"Criminal Act"
"There is no doubt that this is a criminal act," said Cannes Mayor David Lisnard, while the police reported that "all means have been mobilized to identify, search for, arrest, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these acts." An investigation is underway because it considers the events to be criminal in origin. So far, no one has been arrested. Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, killed by an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip. This led some to speculate this Saturday that the blackout was a reaction to her remarks.
The festival organizers immediately announced that the program and closing ceremony would go ahead at the official headquarters, the Palais des Festivals, where screenings continued in the Grand Théâtre Lumiére and in the Bazin, Debussy, and Buñuel rooms, thanks to emergency generators. The screenings also continued photocalls and the press conferences, for example of the film The mastermind, with Josh O'Connor, the latest sensation of the festival. However, the rest of the Cannes screenings have been canceled.
In the city, traffic lights have stopped working, train stations were also out of service, and there were train delays. Luxury stores (Dior, Prada, Chanel) have temporarily closed. People have lounged on terraces and strolled along La Croisette. It was a splendid day, and there was no sense of alarm, despite the police on the streets, common during the festival. Power was gradually restored between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. throughout the region.
This Saturday's sabotage is reminiscent of the attacks on train lines on the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games last summer. French authorities did not clarify at the time who was responsible for the arson attack that damaged the rail network, but suspicions arose that far-left anti-capitalist groups could have been behind it.
