Mumbai: Fifty hospitals in Mumbai and 41 airports across the country received email bomb threats on Tuesday, sending ripples across the security spectrum and constraining authorities to initiate contingency measures and carry out antisabotage checks that lasted hours. All the threats were found to be a hoax, official sources said.
Names Of Hospitals Which Received Threats
The hospitals in Mumbai that received bomb threats over email include Jaslok Hospital, Raheja Hospital, Seven Hills Hospital, Kohinoor Hospital, KEM Hospital, JJ Hospital, and St. George Hospital. The threatening emails were sent using a VPN network, the Mumbai police said, adding that the identity of the sender and the motive behind the threat are yet to be ascertained.
Mumbai’s Hinduja College of Commerce also received a hoax bomb threat over email, according to a news report.
“Local police and the bomb squad reached the spot and started an investigation but nothing suspicious was found. Mumbai’s VP Road police station is investigating this matter,” the news report quoted the police as saying.
More Bomb Threats
The bomb threats were received the same day that 41 airports, including those in Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore, and Jabalpur, received similar threats.
Security was beefed up as agencies swept the terminals after the emails were received around 12.40 pm from the ID exhumedyou888@gmail.com. An online group called “KNR” is suspected to be behind these hoax threat emails. The group had reportedly issued similar emails to several schools in the Delhi-National Capital Region on May 1, according to officials.
The emails received by the airports carried almost identical messages that said: “Hello, there are explosives hidden in the Airport. The bombs will soon explode. You will all die.”
Dubai-Bound Flight Delayed As A Result Of Hoax Threat
At the Chennai airport, a Dubai-bound flight with 286 passengers was delayed as a result of the hoax threat. Soon after receiving the email warning of a bomb on the aircraft, security agencies conducted a thorough search of the flight but found nothing suspicious. The flight was later cleared to proceed to its destination.
Sources at the Mumbai airport said there was no impact on services as the threat was “non-specific”. Authorities at the Nagpur and Patna airports conducted thorough searches on their premises after receiving the threat but found nothing.
