New Delhi: At least four hospitals in Delhi and Tihar jail received bomb threat emails today, weeks after several schools in the national capital as well as other major cities reported bomb hoaxes. Some hospitals in Delhi had also received similar threat emails two days ago.
Delhi State Cancer Institute near the GTB Hospital, Dada Dev Hospital in Dabri, Hedgewar Hospital, and Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital have received bomb threat calls, the Delhi Fire Department said this morning.
The hospital premises are being searched by the bomb squad and sniffer dogs. Fire engines and ambulances are on standby too.
"Police and the bomb disposal squad are conducting the checks. We have also conducted checks twice. Nothing suspicious has been found so far," said VK Sharma, security officer at Hedgewar Hospital.
A spate of bomb hoaxes have been reported in the past weeks - at a time when security has been heightened across the country in view of the ongoing elections.
Nearly 100 schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) received hoax bomb emails on May 1, triggering panic among the school administrations and parents.
On May 6, seven schools in Ahmedabad received bomb threats via email. The emails were sent from servers with Russian IP addresses, sources had said. No suspicious material was found during searches by bomb disposal squads.
Similar bomb threat emails were received Sunday at the Delhi airport and several other addresses including major hospitals in the city. The threats were later found to be fake.
Yesterday, four schools in Jaipur received bomb threats via email. The children were immediately sent home and the bomb squad and sniffer dogs were deployed.