Hoax bomb threat emails sent to 12 Gurugram schools, campuses evacuated

Bomb squads and police teams searched campuses but found nothing suspicious, officials said, adding the emails were traced to foreign servers.

Unidentified individuals sent hoax bomb threats via email to at least a dozen private schools in Gurugram on Tuesday morning, prompting authorities to evacuate the premises and suspend classes, police said.

Threat messages were received between 7am and 9am, prompting schools to evacuate students and begin sanitisation as per safety protocol. (HT)

Officers added several prominent schools, including those on Golf Course Road, Sector-14 and other locations, received the emails between 7am and 9am. Following the threats, schools evacuated students and began sanitisation of the premises as part of standard operating procedures.

Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said police teams along with bomb detection and disposal squads were deployed to check the campuses. “No suspicious item was found anywhere and the threat emails were turned out to be hoax,” he said, adding that preliminary investigation showed the emails were sent from foreign servers.

Turan said the process to register an FIR against unidentified suspects is underway. “Cybercrime teams are working to trace the exact place from where the emails originated and ascertain the identity of the senders,” he said.

HT accessed a copy of the email which showed that four schools — DAV Public School in Sector 14, HDFC School in Sector-57, The Shri Ram School at Moulsari in DLF Phase-III and The Shri Ram School Aravali in DLF Phase-IV — had received the threats.

A resident living in Sector 14, requesting anonymity, said the evacuation began early in the morning. “By 8.30am, the school had begun evacuating students and sending them home. We learned that while some students were already inside the school, others were not allowed to enter and were sent back,” the resident said.

Police said a similar incident took place on January 28 when 13 private schools in the city received hoax bomb threats via email, forcing authorities to suspend classes and evacuate campuses. After two to three hours of sanitisation, no suspicious item was found.

Officials said that on both occasions the accused mentioned “Khalistan” and issued threats to top leadership of the central and Haryana governments.