Two city hospitals and Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi received bomb threats via email on Sunday. The Delhi Fire Services reported threats at Burari Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, with the airport receiving an email at 6 pm. Police and bomb squads swiftly responded to the situation, with authorities dispatching personnel to the affected locations. This comes 11 days after over 150 schools in Delhi-NCR received similar threats which were later declared a hoax by the authorities.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) M K Meena confirmed the response to the threat at Burari Hospital and said, “Teams are checking the hospital. Nothing suspicious has been found yet.”
In a statement, an official at the Burari Hospital said, “At around 3 pm, we received an email regarding a bomb in the hospital. After this, all the safety measures had been thoroughly checked and everything was stable. This was the first time we received such an email.” Sanjay Gandhi Hospital also received a threat email around 3 pm, according to officials.
“Soon after the call, we immediately pressed two fire engines at both the locations. Our teams are still there as the search operation is going on,” a DFS official said.
On May 1, over 150 schools in Delhi-NCR received an identical threat email claiming that explosives had been planted on their premises, triggering massive evacuations and searches as panic-stricken parents rushed to pick up their children.
“Nothing objectionable” was found during searches by authorities which later declared it a hoax.
The Delhi Police’s anti-terror unit special cell has traced the domain of emails to Russia and it is suspected to have been formed with the help of the dark web — an encrypted online content that allows individuals to hide their identity and location from others.
(With inputs from PTI)