Two bomb threats in 24 hours keep Tamil Nadu police busy

A man threatened to blow up the DMK headquarters in a phone call to police on a day when an anonymous email had also threatened to blow up famous Hindu temples in the state.

Two bomb threats within 24 hours kept the Tamil Nadu police busy on Thursday. The first one threatened to bomb the historic Hindu places of worship in the state—the Meenakshi temple in Madurai and the Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram—while the second threatened to blow up the DMK headquarters in Chennai.

Bomb squads and sniffer dogs were employed in Tamil Nadu after a caller threatened to blow up DMK office in Chennai. (HT Photo/File/Representative)

No bombs could be recovered from either location in searches by bomb squads.

Security at the temples and the All India Radio station office in Kodaikanal was increased after a threatening email was received at the state police headquarters in the early hours of Thursday.

The threat to DMK headquarters was doled out by a man “speaking in Hindi” who called the Chennai City Police Control room on the same day.

“The unidentified man contacted the control room and warned that a bomb has been kept in Anna Arivalayam - the DMK office,” said an inquiry officer.

Sniffer dogs and bomb squads screened the Dravidian party’s office on Thursday night but found no explosives.

DMK president MK Stalin usually visits the party headquarters in the evening and stays till night, but on Thursday, he was in Mumbai attending the swearing-in ceremony of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray

Police said they were trying to trace the caller and the author of the email.