A Chinese lantern on the subway tracks at Times Square shut down service for over an hour while police investigated reports from witnesses that it was a grenade, authorities said.

Trains began bypassing the 42nd Street station near 8th Avenue at 1:20 p.m. while the bomb squad investigated the object on the uptown C tracks—but it ended up being a harmless Chinese lantern, cops said.

No criminality is suspected.

An MTA spokesman said that service was restored about 2:35 p.m.