Train service in the Spanish city of Barcelona was disrupted after the rail network was partially shut down because of a bomb scare. Madrid’s Atocha mainline train station was also evacuated.

Eurasia Diary reports citing to Deutsche Welle, authorities in Barcelona on Wednesday said the city's central Sants station had reopened after an explosives search was conducted on two trains.

Catalonia's regional police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, said the security operation had been sparked by the discovery of a possible explosive device in a suitcase. Security staff detected the object during a routine luggage scanning procedure for boarding high-speed Spanish trains.

The station was closed while the searches were carried out, in accordance with standard security protocols.

In Madrid, the Spanish state-owned rail firm RENFE said it evacuated the city's main train station, Atocha, later saying the bomb scare was a false alarm.

Atocha was the scene of the 2004 Madrid train bombings in which simultaneous, co-ordinated explosions were detonated on four separate commuter trains, killing 193 people and injuring around 2,000.  An official investigation found that the attacks were directed by an al-Qaida terror cell, although no direct link with al-Qaida was established.