Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
French police are investigating a possible arson attack causing a power outage in Cannes during the film festival. Events continued with an independent power supply.
CANNES, France (Reuters) - French police were investigating a possible arson attack as being the main cause for a power outage which hit the Alpes-Maritimes region in southern France on Saturday, including Cannes which is hosting its world-famous annual film festival.
"We are looking into the likelihood of a fire being started deliberately," said a spokesperson for the French national gendarmerie, adding that no arrests had been made at this stage.
The local authority for the Alpes-Maritimes region had said earlier on Saturday that the western part of the area, which includes Cannes, was suffering from a major electricity outage and that RTE France was working on restoring power.
The Cannes Film Festival said the closing ceremony would take place as planned on Saturday evening.
"The Palais des Festivals has switched to an independent power supply, allowing all scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, to proceed as planned and under normal conditions," it said in a statement.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Michaela Cabrera and Miranda Murray; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and David Evans)
French police are investigating a possible arson attack as the main cause for the power outage in the Alpes-Maritimes region.
The local authority for the Alpes-Maritimes region reported that the western part, including Cannes, was experiencing a major electricity outage.
Yes, the Cannes Film Festival announced that the closing ceremony would take place as scheduled, with the Palais des Festivals switching to an independent power supply.
As of now, no arrests have been made in connection with the investigation into the possible arson attack.
The Palais des Festivals has switched to an independent power supply to ensure that all scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, proceed as planned.
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