Police search another school in Bengaluru over bomb threat

On Saturday, Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra said that Central agencies are looking into the hoax bomb threat received by at least 15 schools in Bengaluru on Friday.

Days after 15 schools in Bengaluru received bomb threats that turned out to be hoaxes, Cubbon Park police on Monday carried out a combing operation at the Bishop Cotton Girl’s School, which police officials said also received a threat.

Days after 15 schools in Bengaluru received bomb threats that turned out to be hoaxes, Cubbon Park police on Monday carried out a combing operation at the Bishop Cotton Girl’s School (Representative use)

Searches were conducted after the school authorities informed police about the email on a bomb threat, officials said.

“Although the email arrived on April 8, the management got to know about the mail on Monday and alerted the police. Our teams along with the dog detection unit and canine squad rushed to the spot as per procedure and carried out an extensive search,” said a senior police officer.

The police have also taken up a complaint and the cybercrime division police are trying to track down the sender. The school was not functioning when they received the mail and did not check the mail until Monday, a police officer said.

On Saturday, Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra said that Central agencies are looking into the hoax bomb threat received by at least 15 schools in Bengaluru on Friday. The threat turned out to be a hoax as the bomb detection squads did not find any explosives during the search operations; however, the schools had to be evacuated.

The mail was sent multiple times to the schools on the email ids available on their website. Some schools received as many as 140 emails and all the emails had similar content, said senior officers.

The content in the mail read: “A very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, attention is not a joke, this is not a joke, a very powerful bomb has been planted in your school, immediately call the police and sappers, hundreds of lives may suffer, including yours, do not delay, now everything is only in your hands! [sic].”

Meanwhile, Bengaluru police have registered an FIR in the case and an investigation is underway. A senior officer said the investigators are awaiting a response from Google on the query sent by police on the origin of the emails.