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Catalan police have said Tuesday’s bomb scare at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia was a false alarm.
Police had evacuated the famous church and nearby businesses in an anti-terrorism operation amid suspicions over a van parked near the church.
A bomb squad was also sent to check the van.
A spokesman with the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police said two occupants spotted in the van had raised the alarm, but the bomb squad did not find any explosives in the vehicle.
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He said several streets had been cordoned off as police worked in the area.
Barcelona, a tourism hub in northeast Spain’s Catalonia region, and a nearby coastal town were targets of extremist attacks that killed 16 people last month. The so-called Islamic State group claimed the attacks.
Spain has kept its anti-terrorism security warning one level below the maximum since mid-2015.
Reuters