2 Delhi schools receive bomb threat emails; police, fire services launch probe
Two schools in Delhi, Army Public School in Dhaula Kuan and Air Force Bal Bharti School on Lodhi Road, received bomb threat emails on Monday. Police officials and the Delhi Fire Service are reportedly on site.
“We are verifying the source of the email. So far, nothing suspicious has been found. As a precautionary measure, a thorough search operation is underway on the school premises, which has been vacated,” a senior police officer told news agency PTI regarding the threat to Army Public School.
The school administration alerted authorities in the morning after receiving an email warning that an explosive device had been planted on the campus.
The cyber cell has been brought in to track the source of the email and identify who sent it, the officer said. Teams from Delhi Police, the bomb disposal squad, dog squad and fire department are at the spot.
The rise of bomb threats to Delhi schools
Recently, there has been a sharp increase in bomb threats sent to schools in the national capital and Noida city in Uttar Pradesh. Courts across the country have also been getting similar threats.
Notably, all have turned out to be hoax, however, they create panic among students and parents.
On Thursday last week, at least three schools in Delhi received bomb threat emails, leading to evacuations and checks by several agencies at all three campuses. The threats were received early in the morning and were later confirmed to be a hoax.
Those emails were sent to CRPF Public School and St Thomas School in Dwarka, and DAV Centenary Public School in Paschim Enclave.
A Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officer said, “We received information about bomb threat emails sent to three schools in the Dwarka and Paschim Enclave areas. Fire tenders and rescue teams were immediately rushed to the locations as a precautionary measure. Nothing suspicious was found.”
Police said teams from the bomb disposal squad, dog squad and local police searched the school premises soon after the threats were reported.
More than 500 such cases were reported last year, and in the past two weeks alone at least four similar threats have been received by Delhi-NCR schools.
Bomb threat to Noida schools
On Thursday, at least 18 schools in Noida also received bomb threat emails during board examinations, police said, adding that the mails were later confirmed to be a hoax and nothing suspicious was found.
After school authorities saw the threatening message on their official email accounts, they informed police. This led to several teams from the bomb squad, dog squad and anti-sabotage check (ASC) unit, along with senior officers, rushing to the schools.
“Multiple schools received bomb threat mails in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday. Following the information about the threat emails, multiple teams were dispatched and extensive searches in all schools were conducted,” said Rajeev Narayan Mishra, additional commissioner of police (Law and Order), Gautam Budh Nagar.
