Grenade-shaped buckle halts Spanish trains

A belt buckle in the shape of a hand grenade detected inside a train passenger's suitcase has triggered major disruptions to rail services in Spain's two main cities.

The belt buckle prompted station evacuations before police declared the incident a false alarm.

An official with Spain's National Police said Wednesday's alert was ended after agents in Madrid confirmed the suspicious object in the female passenger's suitcase didn't pose any danger.

The passenger had travelled on a high-speed train from Barcelona.

"Everything returns to normal," said the National Police in a brief tweet, referring to disruptions in the long-distance and commuter train stations in the Spanish capital.

Earlier, police searched high-speed trains and railway tracks in Barcelona after the central Sants station's security scanner identified the object, shaped like an explosive device, inside the passenger's suitcase.

A homegrown extremist cell killed 16 people in Barcelona and a nearby coastal resort in August last year, in consecutive vehicle and knife attacks that were later claimed by the Islamic State group.