New Delhi: Chaos broke out at a private school in South Delhi Wednesday morning after it received a bomb threat via email at around 11 am. The Indian School was immediately evacuated and parents were asked to pick up their wards. Bomb detection and disposal squads and SWAT teams were called to the location and the area was cordoned off. Soon after, the Delhi Police said that the email threat appeared to be a hoax.
This is the second bomb threat received by the Indian School in a span of six months.
South Delhi DCP Chandan Choudhary told ThePrint, “A minute and thorough checking of the school premises (Indian School) was undertaken by BDS, BDT and SWAT teams after evacuating the premises. The email threat appears to be a hoax.”
According to sources in the Delhi Police, the email, in English, read — “There is a strong bomb in the school, that will cause harm to the students and faculty. Evacuate soon.”
The sources further said that attempts are being made to track the email. “It appears to be a hoax but we are making attempts to track the email and where it was sent from. Teams are working to identify the IP address of the device from which it was sent. Security around the school has been tightened,” a police officer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Anxious parents gathered outside the school as soon as they were notified. “Classes usually get over at 1.20 pm. But today we got a call that we must come immediately and take our children home,” Naresh Kumar, whose son is a fifth grader at the school, told ThePrint.
“We panicked and came immediately. Someone also told us that question papers of Class 10 students have been stolen. We saw bomb squads enter the premises. Initially, we had no confirmation on anything,” said Ajay, who had come to pick up his employer’s child.
Another parent, Ekta, whose child studies in Class 1 at the school, said, “We got a message from the parents Whatsapp group that it is an emergency and we all rushed to pick them up.”
Last November too, the Indian School had received a bomb threat via email on its official mail ID. It was later found to be a hoax. DCP Choudhary said that email was found to have been sent from a server in Germany, adding that no suspects were identified, nor arrests made at the time.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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