Power outage hits Cannes Festival and disrupts traffic in south-east France

The Festival is preparing to hand out its top prize (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

A major power outage has struck south-eastern France, disrupting traffic and briefly halting events at the Cannes Film Festival as the prestigious event prepared to hand out its top prize, the Palme d’Or.

About 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department lost electricity after a high-voltage line fell on Saturday morning, electricity network operator RTE said on X.