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Spanish police have arrested a man after he attempted to enter a popular tourist landmark with a suitcase filled with ammunition.

The major security alert took place Barcelona's Sagrada Familia basilica earlier on Sunday.

The incident comes just days after police stepped up security in the city amidst fears that a Christmas attack was being planned.

The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a French citizen as he tried to enter the temple with five magazines for a nine-millimetre gun in a suitcase or backpack.

Security officers stopped him as he went through metal detectors. It is understood no gun was found though there are reports a weapon was discovered in a nearby car.

(Image: REUTERS)

The man is claiming he was invited to a private mass after going out for shooting practice and had "forgotten" he was still carrying ammunition.

He says he is a French soldier but this has yet to be verified.

Officers with the Catalan police have arrested him for illegal possession of arms.

Spanish newspapers say the ammunition was detected inside a suitcase when the detainee crossed the security arch that protects the monument.

The Mossos d'Esquadra have initiated an investigation to clarify the facts. Police sources say the detainee is collaborating and that they do not believe that he intended to carry out an attack on the Sagrada Familia

This incident comes after the Catalan police reinforced surveillance and spot checks in crowded areas of Barcelona for fear of a possible terrorist threat during the Christmas holidays.

The security forces maintain the anti-terrorist alert at level 4 out of 5. </s> A Frenchman has been arrested after sparking a terror scare at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia when he was caught carrying five handgun magazines for a 9mm pistol.

A small dagger and a 'semiautomatic knife' are also thought to have been discovered in a rucksack he was carrying when he tried to get into the city centre temple.

Police are said to have found a weapon with its series number erased in his car, which was parked nearby.

The man, understood to be a soldier, was being held this morning in police cells ahead of a behind-closed-doors court appearance. The arrest happened just before 5.30pm yesterday.

Sagrada Familia security guards alerted cops after detecting the munition in a rucksack as the Frenchman passed through a metal detector on his way into the Gaudi-designed temple, one of the intended targets of the terrorists behind the August 17 2017 Las Ramblas massacre.

Local reports said Spanish authorities had confirmed he was a soldier after he claimed he had been doing shooting practice in the south of France and left the magazines in his rucksack by mistake.

The detainee, who was with his girlfriend, is said to have cooperated fully with police.

A spokesman for the regional Mossos d'Esquadra said he was unable to confirm reports the Frenchman was a soldier or the possibility he was planning a terror attack had been ruled out because the investigation 'remained open.'

He said: 'The investigation remains open. All I can confirm at this stage is a man has been arrested in the vicinity of the Sagrada Familia.

'He is currently in police custody. He can be held for up to 72 hours so he could go before a judge today or tomorrow.

'He was arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.'

Last week it emerged police in Barcelona had been warned a Moroccan man could carry out a terror attack on Christmas Day.

Officers were told the Casablanca-born terrorist may try to commit a spectacular massacre in the Catalan capital using a coach or similar type of vehicle.

The terror warning was highlighted by several Spanish papers on Christmas Eve who said they had seen an internal alert sent to regional Mossos d'Esquadra officers.

The revelation surfaced after the US state department tweeted: 'Spain. Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement including buses in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year.

'Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas.'

Catalan Interior Minister Miquel Buch later confirmed the existence of the terror alert.

He said in a radio interview: 'It's one more of those we receive. No doubt this case is a little different because of the US State Department tweet.

'All are investigated and worked on thoroughly. This is one more.'

Moroccan Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, used a rented van to mow down and kill 15 people including British-born Julian Cadman, seven, in Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas on August 17 2017.

More than 130 people were injured.

Police shot dead Younes in vineyards in Subirats an hour's drive west of Barcelona after he went on the run following the Barcelona massacre. He was later buried in an unmarked grave in a funeral held in secret in his homeland.

The terrorists behind the deadly Barcelona attack, and another hours later in nearby Cambrils, had planned to use butane gas cylinders to blow up iconic landmarks including the Sagrada Familia.

More than 20 butane gas canisters were found intact in the wreckage of their bomb factory.

Traces of triacetone triperoxide, a peroxide-based explosive known as TATP or the Mother of Satan which police believe the terror gang were going to use to detonate the gas, were also discovered. </s> Police in Barcelona say explosives experts are checking a van in the surroundings of the landmark Sagrada Familia cathedral in what they are describing as an anti-terrorism operation </s> Catalan police said on Tuesday they had cordoned off the Sagrada Familia church, a famous tourist site in Barcelona, as part of an anti-terrorism operation.

MADRID: Catalan police said on Tuesday they had cordoned off the Sagrada Familia church, a famous tourist site in Barcelona, as part of an anti-terrorism operation.

Police said on Twitter they were conducting checks at the site. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Police said the man had entered the building with the aim of attacking officers

A man wielding a large knife and shouting in Arabic targeted officers on Monday at a police station south of Barcelona, in what police are calling a terrorist attack.

The attacker, said to be 29 and of Algerian origin, was shot dead as he lunged towards officers, said police.

Spain's north-east Catalan region has been marking the anniversary of the 2017 jihadist attack on Barcelona.

However, police said they had found no evidence the incidents were linked.

The attacker, identified locally as Abdelouahab Taib, approached the police station in the town of Cornellà de Llobregat at 05:52 (03:52 GMT) on Monday, buzzing the intercom and demanding to be allowed in.

When a woman officer behind a reception window opened the door, the man lunged at her "with a clear intent to kill", Police Commissioner Rafel Comes told reporters.

The man shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as he rushed forward.

The officer opened fire and the attacker was fatally wounded, the commissioner said, without saying how many shots were fired. The officer had used a gun to save her life, he said, although it was unclear if she was behind a glass partition at the time.

"For now we are treating it as a terrorist attack," he said, although he stressed there was nothing at this stage to link him to the jihadist cell involved in the attacks on Barcelona's Las Ramblas venue on 17 August last year and Cambrils hours later.

Sixteen people were killed in the twin attacks and the man who drove a van into civilians on Las Ramblas was eventually tracked down and shot dead on 21 August.

Abdelouahab Taib had been living in Spain for several years and had a foreigners' identity number. He had no criminal record and lived with a Spanish woman, although local media reported that they had begun divorce proceedings.

Members of the Catalan police force and other authorities searched the man's home a short distance from the police station while his partner was questioned.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Police searched the man's home on Monday near the scene of the attack

Police stations across Spain were put on alert as a result of Monday's incident.

Spain has been on its second highest terrorist alert level - four out of five - since June 2015.

Teresa Cunillera, the Spanish government's representative in Catalonia, had earlier refused to be drawn on the motive for Monday's incident until police had investigated further.

"Reaching conclusions is very hard before they have carried out the minimum of checks and looked into the motives," she told Spanish radio. </s> Police in Barcelona say explosives experts are checking a van in the surroundings of the landmark Sagrada Familia cathedral in what they are describing as an anti-terrorism operation.

A spokesman with the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police said the church has been evacuated and several streets cordoned off to allow police work in the area.

The spokesman declined to be identified by name, following the force's protocol.

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 Islamic State claimed the attacks.

Spain has kept its anti-terrorism security warning one level below the maximum since mid-2015. </s> Police have evacuated tourists from the area around Barcelona's Sagrada Familia church as part of an anti-terror operation.

The nearest tube station has been closed and locals and holidaymakers ordered away from cafe and bar terraces and told to take refuge inside premises.

Specialist bomb disposal experts have been sent to the area to check a van, police said.

Several roads have also been closed. The area has been cordoned off as police rush to investigate.

The drama is understood to have been sparked by a suspicious package inside a van.

Regional Mossos d'Esquadra police tweeted in a message partly directed at those immediately affected: 'We are making checks around the Sagrada Familia as part of an anti-terror operation and have cordoned off the area. Follow the instructions of police.'

The Sagrada Familia, one of Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions, was the intended target of the terrorists who carried out last month's atrocity in the city's famous Ramblas and the seaside resort of Cambrils.

It comes less than a month after 13 people were murdered and 130 hurt in the city's Las Ramblas when a jihadist drove a van into pedestrians on the street.

Five men then drove into pedestrians in nearby Cambrils, murdering one woman and hurting six others before being shot dead by police.

It later emerged that the terrorists were plotting to detonate vans loaded with gas canisters into popular tourist destinations in Barcelona - including the Sagrada Familia.

Catalan police said today they were evacuating the holy site and nearby businesses as part of an anti-terrorism operation.

They said earlier on Twitter they had cordoned off the site.

Spain has kept its anti-terrorism security warning one level below the maximum since mid-2015. </s> Police in Barcelona on Tuesday said explosives experts are checking a van near the Sagrada Familia cathedral in what they are describing as an anti-terrorism operation.

A spokesperson with the Mossos d'Esquadra regional police said the church has been evacuated and several streets cordoned off.

The spokesperson declined to be identified by name, following the force's protocol.

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. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Spain has kept its anti-terrorism security warning one level below the maximum since mid-2015. </s> Armed Catalan police outside the station in Cornella de Llobregat. Photo: AFP

A police officer shot dead a man armed with a knife as he tried to attack a police station in the northern Spanish region of Catalonia on Monday, in what police are treating as a "terrorist attack".

Police said the man invoked the name of Allah during the assault, which came just days after the first anniversary of a twin attack in Catalonia that killed 16 people.

The man arrived at the closed police station in the town of Cornella de Llobregat near Barcelona at 5:45 am (0345 GMT) and repeatedly pressed the buzzer to be let in, Rafel Comes, a commissioner with the Catalan regional police, told a news conference.

After police allowed him in, the man pulled out a "large knife" and lunged at officers in "a clearly premeditated desire to kill an agent of our force," Comes said.

"The officer used her gun to save her own life," Comes said, adding that "we are treating it as a terrorist attack".

The man shouted "Allah" as well as words the police officers did not understand, Comes said.

Anti-terrorism police sources had earlier told AFP the man was a 29-year-old Algerian, but Comes said police still needed to confirm that the Algerian identity papers he carried with him were in fact act his.

Officers searched the man's home, which was located just a few hundred metres (yards) from the site of the attack.

Resident Conchi Garcia, a 50-year-old office worker, said the man suspected in the attack came to the neighbourhood two years ago, moving in with a single mother who had always lived in the area.

"She started wearing the veil overnight. It was strange," Garcia told AFPTV.

Another neighbour, who would only give her first name, Mary, said police "monitored the couple's movements closely".

Security has been reinforced at police stations across Catalonia.

The incident occurred just days after the one-year anniversary of a deadly jihadist rampage in Catalonia.

Sixteen people were killed on August 17th and 18th, 2017 when a van drove into crowds on Barcelona's popular Las Ramblas boulevard and in a knife attack in the nearby resort of Cambrils.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, Spain's worst since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 when 191 people died and more than 1,800 were injured.

Spain has kept its terrorist alert at the second-highest level since 2015.

Catalonia, which is home to a significant number of second-generation North African immigrants, has had a long history of Islamic militant activity.

Spain's first Muslim extremist -- a member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) -- was uncovered in Catalonia in 1995.

Mohammed Atta, the pilot who slammed a passenger plane into one of New York's World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, spent time in Catalonia shortly before the attacks.

One in four people detained in Spain in relation to extremist Muslim-linked terrorism come from the Catalan province of Barcelona, according to a study published last year by the Real Instituto Elcano, a Spanish think-tank, which called the province the country's "main centre of jihadist activity".

There have been a string of similar incidents in neighbouring France targeting police and soldiers, including one in January 2016 in which police shot dead a man wielding a cleaver and yelling "Allahu akbar" as he tried to attack a police station in northern Paris.

The Islamic State group has frequently called on their followers to attack soldiers and police in France, who they see as a legitimate target because they represent the French state.

Separately on Monday, three people were seriously injured when a car mounted a pavement in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza and sped off, sparking fears of a vehicle attack.

However a local police spokesman said it was a road accident, and the two occupants of the car were later detained.
A French man is detained in Barcelona, Spain, upon entering the Sagrada Familia with a suitcase containing ammunition. The Catalan police do not consider it an act of terrorism.