Hoax calls in schools trigger panic

Anonymous calls about terror strikes in two schools on Wednesday triggered panic in the national capital but extensive searches by police in its premises found that they were hoax.

Anonymous calls about terror strikes in two schools on Wednesday triggered panic in the national capital but extensive searches by police in its premises found that they were hoax.

HT Image

Police received calls that terrorists were holed up in one each school in West Delhi and south-west Delhi on Wednesday morning, triggering panic among the security establishment as well as parents.

The anonymous callers said that terrorists were inside Rose Model school in south-west Delhi's Dwarka and Gyan Bharti school in west Delhi's Rajouri Garden, a senior police official said.

Police teams, which included bomb disposal experts, searched the schools and found that no terrorists were holed up there or any explosives were planted in the premises, the official said.

Efforts are on to trace the caller, the official added.

"We are checking the schools. There is nothing to panic. We advise public to be alert and not panic about the situation," Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.

Delhi Police has received about 100 hoax calls so far this year. There has been an increase in the number of bomb hoax calls after the September 13 serial blasts in the capital, keeping the sleuths on their toes.

Soon after the blasts, there were bomb scares at Barakhamba Road, Rajiv Chowk metro station and several other places in the capital. Some of the city schools also received threatening calls, creating panic among parents and students.

The city police has started punishing such pranksters for creating fear or alarm among general public, which is a non-bailable offence.