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Police evacuated the main railway stations in Barcelona and Madrid during Wednesday morning rush hour after a grenade-shaped belt buckle triggered a security alert.
The incident, which turned out to be a false alarm, seems to have been caused by a woman who was wearing the buckle of the belt in a train connecting Barcelona to Madrid.
Catalan regional police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, said an explosives unit had been sent to the high-speed railway line at Sants Central Station in Barcelona at 8 am, following a appeal of railroad workers.
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The alarm was triggered after security agents saw an object "looking like a possible explosive device" on their scanners.
A photograph published by force appeared showing the outline of a grenade in a suitcase. A police spokesman said that it was a pomegranate-shaped belt buckle.
Two trains were searched before the Mossos declared that the object "posed no threat".
The security alert also resulted in the evacuation of Madrid's Atocha station, but police said it was a false alarm.
"Our agents carried out the necessary checks at Madrid's Atocha station and discovered that it was a false alarm," the Spanish national police said in a tweet. "The police operation is over and everything is back to normal."
The Mossos then confirmed that the object and the woman wearing it had been located at the Atocha station, adding that the police had established that the object was not dangerous.
It was not known why the suspect case was allowed to board the train.
The rail operator Adif has announced the opening of an investigation into possible safety failures related to the incident.
Around 9:20, the Spanish national railway company, Renfe, declared that a partial high-speed service had been re-established at the Barcelona train station.
The Mossos also tweeted: "Services are starting to be restored at Sants Station after various specialized units have made the appropriate checks."
An Associated Press reporter at Sants Station has seen long lines of passengers wait for rail service to resume.
The Atocha station was the scene of a bombing in March 2004, which left 193 dead and around 2,000 wounded, the most deadly bombing in Spain. Police said the operation was carried out by Islamist militants inspired by Al Qaeda.
A local extremist cell killed 16 people last August in Barcelona and in a coastal resort town in the course of subsequent car and knife attacks later claimed by the Islamic State group.
