Madrid, Spain (AFP)— Panicked customers scrambled to withdraw cash from banks and streets overflowed with crowds floundering without internet and phone coverage as a power outage plunged Spain into chaos on Monday.

Carlos Condori, one of millions of affected in Spain and Portugal, was on the Madrid metro when the blackout brought his journey to a shuddering halt.

“The light went out and the carriage stopped,” but the train managed to crawl to the platform, the 19-year-old construction worker told AFP outside a metro station in central Madrid.

“People were stunned, because this had never happened in Spain,” he added. “There’s no coverage, I can’t call my family, my parents, nothing: I can’t even go to work.”

At Cibeles Square, one of Madrid’s busiest intersections, a cacophony of sirens, whistles and car horns erupted when the traffic lights went out. Police did their best to keep cars and buses moving.

Bewildered office workers congregated in streets with their computers made useless without internet, alongside residents, were thankful they had not been trapped in lifts.

A disorientated Marina Sierra tried to contact her dad and improvise a route home to the Madrid suburbs after her school was shut.

“The building we were in was giving off smoke, they had to evacuate us quickly…. I’m shocked because everything is totally out of control,” the 16-year-old said.

Meanwhile without metros and trains, queues snaked along city streets for alternate bus routes.

“I don’t know how much longer I still have until I’m home,” said Rosario Pena, 39, a fast food worker, as buses crammed with passengers passed without stopping.

Tens of thousands took to walking him from offices in central Madrid. Restaurants, conscious of their food being at risk without cold storage, offered promotions to the weary and stranded.

“Oysters and a glass of wine: 5 euros, cash payment,” read a cardboard sign at one street corner, while an ice cream shop, Dolce Fina, simply began handing out free tubs — and a long queue soon formed outside.