NICE, France (AP) 鈥 A second major power outage hit southeastern France early Sunday, this time in the city of Nice, after an electrical facility was damaged by suspected arson.
Police currently have not established a link between the blackout that affected parts of Nice as well as nearby cities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var, and a power outage on Saturday that during the closing day of its renowned .
The Nice blackout started around 2 a.m. and left some 45,000 households without electricity. The city鈥檚 trams stopped and power was briefly cut to the Nice C么te d鈥橝zur airport during its overnight closure hours.
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Power was fully restored by 5:30 a.m., according to the energy provider company Enedis.
The Nice public prosecutor said a criminal investigation has been opened for 鈥渙rganized arson.鈥
On Saturday, two other installations in the Alpes Maritime department were damaged in what officials also suspected to be arson, temporarily cutting power to 160,000 homes, including events at the Cannes Film Festival.
An unknown anarchist group claimed responsibility for the Cannes outage in a lengthy posting on the website .
鈥淲e are two bands of anarchists,鈥 said the statement published Sunday by an unknown user. “We claim responsibility for the attack on electrical installations on the C么te d鈥橝zur.鈥
Authorities have not verified the statement, and police have not commented on the claim.
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Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi condemned Sunday鈥檚 attack and said the city had filed a complaint.
鈥淚 strongly denounce these malicious acts targeting our country,鈥 he said on X. He ordered all sensitive electrical infrastructure in the city to be placed under police protection.
鈥淭hese actions can have serious consequences, particularly on hospitals,鈥 Estrosi said at a press briefing on Sunday. 鈥淎s long as the perpetrators haven鈥檛 been caught, we will remain on high alert.鈥
