45 schools, 3 colleges targeted on 4th day of hoax threats in Delhi

The email also carried disturbing remarks alluding to suicide, as well as accusations that psychiatrists and psychologists had failed to provide care

Delhi’s wave of bomb hoaxes continued for the fourth straight day on Friday, with 45 schools and three colleges receiving a mass email overnight warning of explosives planted on their campuses. Discovered by staff on Friday morning, the threat mail yet again triggered evacuations, search operations, and fresh anxiety over what appears to be a calculated attempt to spread panic across the city’s educational institutions.

Delhi Police personnel and fire fighters conduct a security check at Queen Global International School in Dilshad Garden after the school received a bomb threat via email, in New Delhi on Friday. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

The email, seen by Hindustan Times, was sent from roadkillmentalhospital@atomicmail.io at 10.53pm on Thursday.

Titled “‘Roadkill’ via SV Info”, the message was marked to 45 schools — several of them marked twice. The sender wrote, “I am writing to let you know that I have placed several explosive devices (trinitrotoluene) within school classrooms. The explosives are skillfully hidden, in black plastic bags.” The person also wrote “they hate their life and will die by suicide after the news kick in”.

The email also carried disturbing remarks alluding to suicide, as well as accusations that psychiatrists and psychologists had failed to provide care. “You only care about medicating the helpless and clueless humans,” the message read.

Police began receiving calls early Friday morning as school authorities opened their mails and spotted the threat. Several prominent schools were among those targeted, including Delhi International Public School, Prudence Group of Schools, The Indian School, DPS RK Puram, and DPS Vasant Vihar.

A senior police officer said bomb disposal squads, local police units, and fire department personnel were immediately dispatched to conduct a thorough search and cordon operations. “In all the schools, parents were intimated and the students were either sent back home or taken to the playground till the searches were completed,” the officer said. No explosives were found and the threat was later declared a hoax.

Authorities are working to trace the IP address behind the email, but officials said the use of servers such as atomicmail.io makes the task difficult. “This is what happens in most of the cases, which is why barely any sender has been identified so far,” the officer said.

This incident bears resemblance to a May 2024 hoax, when nearly 300 schools received similar threats. Over the following weeks, hospitals and museums in Delhi were also targeted.

A second officer explained that there are typically four methods used by such anonymous senders, which complicate investigations. The first involves using mainstream service providers like Google, which cooperate with Indian law enforcement and share IP details.

The second involves lesser-known providers such as mail.ru or atomicmail.io, which either don’t respond to Indian agencies or require a formal request via the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). “If we take the MLAT route, it can take up to two years to get some information,” the officer said, noting that last year’s May hoax remains unresolved for this reason.

The third method involves using the darknet or dark web, which makes tracing nearly impossible, and the fourth is via proxy servers or VPNs, which mask the user’s digital footprint.

Meanwhile, school principals said the intention behind such emails appears to be sowing panic. RN Jindal, chairman of The Sovereign School in Rohini, said they discovered the threat email at 7.24am. “We immediately informed the police and subsequently evacuated all students to the playground. The whole search operation took one and a half hours and the school resumed classes at 9.30am,” he said, urging calm responses to such incidents.

Dipti Vohra, principal of DPS Vasant Kunj, said the school administration spotted the threat around 12.30am and alerted authorities even before students began arriving. “Our school functioned as usual. Authorities proactively conducted a security check before school hours, and there was no disruption,” she said.

Thursday’s hoax marked the fourth such threat this week. On Wednesday, at least seven schools received similar bomb threat emails. On Tuesday, two educational institutions were targeted, and on Monday, three city schools received identical hoax messages. Police and cybersecurity experts are continuing to investigate the pattern, which they suspect could be the work of a lone mischief-maker or part of a broader psychological disruption effort.