A serious energy outage struck southeastern France on Saturday morning, threatening to jeopardize the Cannes Movie Pageant’s closing celebrations, together with the much-anticipated Palme d’Or ceremony.
Police mentioned they’ve opened an investigation into attainable arson.
Energy was restored hours earlier than the ceremony, round 3 p.m. native time, as music started blasting once more from beachfront audio system. The tip of the blackout was greeted with loud cheers from locals.
Earlier, about 160,000 households within the Alpes-Maritimes division misplaced electrical energy after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, electrical energy community operator RTE mentioned on X. The outage got here hours after a fireplace at {an electrical} substation close to Cannes in a single day had already weakened the grid.
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“We’re trying into the probability of a hearth being began intentionally,” mentioned a police spokesperson for the French nationwide gendarmerie.
In an announcement, Laurent Hottiaux, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes division, condemned “severe acts of harm to electrical infrastructures”
“All sources are mobilized to determine, monitor down, arrest and convey to justice the perpetrators of those acts,” mentioned Hottiaux.
Cannes Movie Pageant organizers confirmed the outage affected the early actions of Saturday and mentioned the Palais des Festivals — the Croisette’s important venue — had switched to an impartial energy provide.
“All scheduled occasions and screenings, together with the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as deliberate and beneath regular circumstances,” the assertion mentioned. “At this stage, the reason for the outage has not but been recognized. Restoration efforts are underway.”
Site visitors lights in components of Cannes and the encompassing metropolis of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m., resulting in visitors jams and confusion in metropolis facilities. Most outlets alongside the Croisette remained closed, and native meals kiosks have been solely accepting money. Practice service in Cannes was additionally disrupted.
Screenings on the Cineum, one of many pageant’s satellite tv for pc venues, have been briefly suspended, the pageant added.
The Palme d’Or — the pageant’s most prestigious prize — was set to be awarded Saturday evening, with high contenders together with Joachim Trier’s household drama “Sentimental Worth,” Jafar Panahi’s revenge thriller “It Was Simply an Accident,” Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller “The Secret Agent,” and Óliver Laxe’s desert highway journey “Sirât.”
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