Major power cut in southeast France, including Cannes region during film festival

A major power outage struck southeastern France, including the Cannes region. The organisers, however, informed that the film festival, scheduled to be concluded on Saturday, would not be affected.

The cause of the outage remains unknown. 1,60,000 homes had been affected, Grid operator RTE said.

Cannes film festival said that it had to "switched to an alternative electricity power supply, which enables us to maintain the events and screenings planned for today in normal conditions, including the closing ceremony".

Traffic signals went dark and forced shops along a main street to shut, while morning screenings at the Cannes film festival were briefly halted during the switch to generator power.

This comes after Spain and Portugal urged European Union to step in to push for power interconnectors with France, after a major power outage hit the Iberian Peninsula last month, Reuters reported.