Power outage disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival, police investigate possible arson

CANNES, France — A large powerfulness outage struck southeastern France connected Saturday morning, disrupting postulation and concisely halting events astatine the Cannes Film Festival arsenic the prestigious lawsuit prepared to hand retired its apical prize.

Power was restored astir 3 p.m., arsenic euphony began blasting again from beachfront speakers. The extremity of the blackout was greeted with large cheers from locals.

Earlier, astir 160,000 households successful the Alpes-Maritimes section mislaid energy aft a high-voltage enactment fell Saturday morning, energy web relation RTE said connected X. The outage came hours aft a occurrence astatine an electrical substation adjacent Cannes overnight had already weakened the grid.

Police person opened an probe into imaginable arson.

“We are looking into the likelihood of a occurrence being started deliberately,” said a spokesperson for the French nationalist gendarmerie.

Cannes Film Festival organizers confirmed the outage affected the aboriginal activities of Saturday and said the Palais des Festivals — the Croisette’s main venue — had switched to an autarkic powerfulness supply.

“All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, volition proceed arsenic planned and nether mean conditions,” the connection said. “At this stage, the origin of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway.”

Traffic lights successful parts of Cannes and the surrounding metropolis of Antibes stopped moving aft 10 a.m., starring to postulation jams and disorder successful metropolis centers. Most shops on the Croisette remained closed, and section nutrient kiosks were lone accepting cash. Train work successful Cannes was besides disrupted.

Screenings astatine the Cineum, 1 of the festival’s outer venues, were concisely suspended, the festival added.