It was a few minutes before six in the afternoon when history seemed to be repeating itself; yesterday a false alarm forced the evacuation of Barcelona's central Plaça de Catalunya rail station. Today, however, it did not start with an external phone call. It was a security person at the underground station, located right in the middle of the Catalan capital, who called the 112 emergency number to report a suspicious object.
There was something out of place in one of the trash bins in the station's lobby. The security guard heard it vibrate, and it really sounded like the sound of a clock ticking, as he himself told emergency services when he called. And not only that, there were wires protruding from the artifact that was inside the bin. Thus, he alerted the Mossos police, who quickly deployed to the area.
The Mossos confirmed the sound and cables
When a patrol of transport surveillance officers arrived at the station, they confirmed what the security guard had explained, and it was then that the Mossos' operational head ordered the evacuation of the station and urgently activated the specialized services, the Canine Unit and TEDAX, the unit specialized in deactivating explosives.
TEDAX and Canina confirm the false alarm
Then, at a few minutes past seven in the evening, agents from the Canine and TEDAX units entered the station lobby and inspected the bin containing the object that had forced the activation of the entire security protocol at the station. First, one of the canine guides ruled out that there was an explosive device inside the bin, due to the way the dog behaved. Nevertheless, TEDAX moved a robot to the front of the bin, opened it and confirmed that the vibrating object was not dangerous. As ElNacional.cat has been able to ascertain, it was an alarm system from a stolen scooter, which vibrated and had cables hanging down from it.
Sources from the Catalan police confirmed that the object vibrated and emitted a "tick-tock" type of noise as described by the security guard, and that it is normal for the protocol to have been activated, taking into account the terrorist alert level of 4 (out of 5) that currently exists in Catalonia. When it was confirmed that it was a false alarm, the Mossos d'Esquadra police, in collaboration with the Guardia Urbana and the private security service of Rodalies trains, gradually reopened the station. For more than an hour, there was a state of high tension.
Open investigation
The Mossos have opened an investigation to clarify who planted the object and with what intention, although, for the moment, it does not appear that it was planted as a deliberate bomb hoax. It is common for scooter thieves, after taking the vehicle, to get rid of this system, which in some cases can even carry geolocation. The Catalan police, for the moment, rule out that today's incident has any kind of relationship, direct or tangential, with terrorism.
Second station evacuation in two days
It happens that the Mossos also evacuated the Plaça de Catalunya station for a similar but unrelated event on Monday. Today, the call received at 112 was from a private security guard and thus trusted. On the other hand, yesterday, a false alarm was received, a scare that, according to initial reports, seemed to be aimed at causing a stir and sabotaging the service.