Grenade-shaped belt buckle shuts Atocha in 'bomb scare'
Grenade-shaped belt buckle shuts Atocha in 'bomb scare'
MADRID'S Atocha station shut until 10.30 this morning (Wednesday) due to a 'bomb scare' – but the offending 'explosive device' turned out to be a passenger's belt buckle shaped like a hand grenade.
Commuters were evacuated from Platform 1 and several outer suburban or Cercanías trains were grounded.
The alert came from Barcelona Sants station when a 'suspicious-looking' item showed up in a suitcase on the X-ray machine when boarding a high-speed AVE train bound for the capital.
Security staff set up an emergency search operation to try to find the owner of the case.
A female passenger claimed it, and showed staff that it was just a belt with a grenade-shaped buckle.
Atocha station had been shut because the train was on the way into Madrid.
National Police tweeted an annoucement at exactly 10.26 confirming rail services had returned to normal.
First photograph by passenger José Armando Gómez on Twitter (@Joargomez)
Second photograph by Barcelona Sants station security
