A controlled explosion was carried out before Spain played Nigeria on Thursday night in Olympics basketball according to reports.

The precaution was taken due to a suspicious bag being found inside the venue and while the game went ahead as scheduled, many of the seats within the stadium were empty for most of the first quarter.

As it happened, all that was in the bag was an electronic device, a pair of socks and a jacket but security felt it necessary to carry out the procedure as the bag was unattended and deemed suspicious.

Backpack found inside Olympic basketball arena was exploded. Fans kept outside until then while Spain-Nigeria started men's game. #Rio2016

— Brian Mahoney (@briancmahoney) August 11, 2016

Spain's Pau Gasol spoke of his confusion after the event, "We heard the explosion. We didn't know exactly what it was. We just kind of looked around and said, 'What's going on? What's happening here?' We didn't know," he said. "We thought maybe nobody came to watch the game. At first, we just heard the noise and looked around but we saw everything was OK."

Spain won the game 96-87 as Pau Gasol scored 24 points and his compatriot Ricky Rubio added 15.