By Shankar Raj*
Bengaluru: The city police were put on their toes after six schools in Bengaluru today simultaneously got emails threatening to blow up the schools. The threat came between 11 am and 11.10 am, purportedly from the United States.
Bengaluru police immediately evacuated all the schools and summoned the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads and searched the premises of the schools with a fine comb.
Police sources said the threat prima facie appears to be a hoax.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Bengaluru East) Subramanyeshwara Rao said six schools – Delhi Public School in Sulakunte, Gopalan International School in Mahadevapura, New Academy School in Marathahalli, Ebenezer International School in Electronic City, St Vincent Pallotti School in Hennur, and Indian Public School in Govindapura – received the emails. These are all top-end schools.
“The email is mostly a hoax threat. But we are taking it seriously and not leaving anything to chance,” said Rao.
According to sources, the email 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!.”
*Shankar Raj is former Editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
