Bomb threat to Bengaluru schools: Seems to be a 'hoax', no suspicious objects found in affected places

The residents of Bengaluru city woke up to a bombshell news this morning with almost 15 schools receiving email bomb threats. 'Bomb has been placed in the school building', read the message found in the official email inboxes of the respective schools. Bomb disposal squads rushed to the schools and no suspicious objects were found, police sources said.

Bengaluru:At least 15 schools in Bengaluru city received email bomb threats on Friday. On receiving information about this, parents and relatives have rushed to the respective schools to bring back their children. Miscreants sent the message, 'bomb has been placed in the school building', to the e-mails of the management boards of about 15 schools in the Karnataka capital city.

Police sources said that no 'suspicious object' has been found during the preliminary investigations at the premises of the schools. The email bomb threat is likely to be a hoax like the similar threats received by several schools in Bengaluru last year, the sources said. Over 5,000 students were affected because of today's threats as some of them went back home while others awaited clearance from police to resume class work.

The schools, which received the bomb threats, included National, Vidya Shilpa, NPS and Hebbagodi campus of Ebenezer. School staff found the bomb threat message in the official email boxes when the classes started as usual this morning. They passed on the information to the management who immediately suspended the classes and sent back the children. Panic struck the people of the city as many schools simultaneously received the threatening emails.

Police have reached the schools and took a thorough check on their premises. Bomb disposal squads reached the respective schools along with sniffer dogs. As soon as the message of the bomb threat to the schools is received, the parents expressed their concerns and took away their children from the schools. The staff was also immediately evacuated from the schools.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, in a message on X in Kannada, said, that in the wake of receiving bomb threats through e-mails to some schools in Bangalore, Sadashiva Nagar NEV School has been visited and inspected. "In this case, the police officials have informed about the incident and instructed to conduct proper investigation," he said. Shivakumar visited one of the affected schools and appealed to the parents not to get panicky.

B Dayananda, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City, said the bomb threat seemed to be a hoax. In a message on X, formerly Twitter, he said, “Certain schools in Bengaluru city have received emails today morning indicating ‘bomb threat’. Anti sabotage and bomb detection squads have been pressed into service to verify and ascertain. The calls seem to be hoax. Even then all efforts will be made to trace the culprits.”

The senders of threatening emails masked the IP address of origin. On April 8, 2022, about 16 schools received hoax bomb threat emails just hours after classes began in the morning session. At that time, the police traced the hoax call to the email ID of a minor in Tamil Nadu but the actual miscreants behind the threats remained elusive.

One affected school issued a circular to parents, saying that it had decided to send back the students immediately following the security threat from unknown sources. It told the parents that the safety of children was its utmost priority.

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