Energy outage disrupts final day of Cannes Movie Competition; police investigating attainable arson

French authorities imagine arson could have performed a job in an influence outage Saturday in southeast France that threatened to jeopardize the Cannes Movie Competition’s closing celebrations, together with the much-anticipated Palme d’Or ceremony.

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 top of the blackout was greeted with loud cheers from locals.

Authorities have been investigating the probability of arson in a fireplace at {an electrical} substation close to Cannes that weakened the grid in a single day, a spokesperson for the French nationwide gendarmerie stated.

The facility outage occurred hours later, after a high-voltage line fell at one other location. Authorities have been investigating what prompted that line to break down.

About 160,000 households within the Alpes-Maritimes space misplaced electrical energy.

In an announcement, Laurent Hottiaux, the prefect for the world, condemned “severe acts of injury to electrical infrastructures.”

“All assets are mobilized to establish, monitor down, arrest and produce to justice the perpetrators of those acts,” stated Hottiaux.

Cannes Movie Competition organizers confirmed the outage affected the early actions of Saturday and stated the Palais des Festivals — the Croisette’s most important venue — had switched to an impartial energy provide.

The lineup was unveiled final month for Cannes.

“All scheduled occasions and screenings, together with the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as deliberate and underneath regular circumstances,” the assertion stated. “At this stage, the reason for the outage has not but been recognized. Restoration efforts are underway.”

Visitors lights in elements of Cannes and the encircling metropolis of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m. native time, resulting in site visitors jams and confusion in metropolis facilities. Most retailers 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 was later awarded Saturday evening, with Jafar Panahi’s revenge thriller “It Was Simply an Accident” taking dwelling the pageant’s most prestigious prize.