Chaos in suburban store as cashiers switch from card to cash-only paymentspublished at 16:56 British Summer Time
Barbara Tasch
Live reporter
Image source, Cara McGooganLengthy lines of people have been seen forming at a grocery store in Carcavelos – a suburb in the Portuguese capital
I have been speaking to Cara McGoogan, who is in the Carcavelos suburb of Lisbon and tells me that there has been a run on local grocery stores.
Supermarkets have shut as their doors all run on electricity and are heavily air conditioned.
“The local grocery store is still open, but it’s really full,” Cara says, describing a chaotic situation with the store quickly switching to cash as card payments stopped working. Cashiers were using the calculator on their phones to figure out what change to give, she says.
Cara, who is currently on holiday in the Portuguese capital, adds that they managed to buy some canned goods and vegetables and also bought some candles and battery-powered lights and torches.
All electricity has gone, she says, including power to fridges and freezers. They luckily have a gas-powered barbecue, so friends and neighbours are coming over tonight with all their perishables and they plan on cooking everything.
The blackout started around 11:50 local time (10:50 BST), Cara adds, and while phones were initially fine, the 5G networks are only working intermittently now and the lines went down fully for some time as well.
Source link
