COUNTING THE COST OF THE BLACKOUT

PALMA
THOUSANDS of businesses in Majorca and Minorca yesterday started counting the cost of Thursday's power cut which left over one million people without electricity - some for nearly seven hours.

Yesterday morning, power company Gesa began to receive a steadt flow of compensation claims while the Balearic government is also preparing to hit the electricity company with its own claim for the disruption the blackout caused to Majorca's rail and metro network.

The metro's back-up power system kicked in after 20 minutes but the railway was severely hit by delays of up to an hour on one of its busiest days of the year - Dijous Bo.

And, the government is going to launch a full investigation into the cause of the power cut said to have been caused by a bolt of lightning which struck the Es Murterar power station in Alcudia.