Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and several hospitals in the national capital on Sunday evening bomb threats via email, prompting a security alert. Along with the IGI airport, 20 hospitals and the Northern Railways' CPRO office in Delhi received bomb threats through emails on Sunday, 11 days after similar messages to more than 150 schools in Delhi-NCR sparked a scare of unprecedented scale.
While threats to schools were received from a Russia-based mailing service, Sunday's threats to hospitals and two other installations were received from a Europe-based mailing service company 'beeble.com', officials said.
Noting suspicious was found after searches were conducted
A phone call was received at Terminal 3 of the airport at approximately 18:20 local time, leading to a search operation by bomb disposal teams. No suspicious devices were found.
Similarly, Burari Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, located in different parts of the city, received threatening emails, leading to the immediate deployment of bomb disposal squads and fire officials. However, no suspicious devices or explosives were found, police said in a statement.
"We received an email regarding a bomb threat at Burari Hospital. Our local police and bomb disposal teams are at the hospital, and nothing suspicious has been found yet," said DCP (north) Manoj Meena.
Similarly, DCP (outer) Jimmy Chiram confirmed that a detailed search was conducted at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri, but no suspicious device was found.
The first call was received by fire officials at 3:15 pm from Burari Hospital, and the second call from Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital around 4:26 pm. The searches are still ongoing at both hospitals.
According to a police officer, the e-mail was sent to one hospital with copies marked to others with the same content, an officer said. The officer said it was generated from sender id "courtgroup03@beeble.com", which is being verified and cyber officials are trying to locate the IP address.
The content of the letter read, "I have placed explosive devices inside your building. They will explode in the following hour. This isn't a threat, you have a few hours to disarm the bomb or else the blood of innocent people inside the building will be on your hands.
"The group called 'Court' is behind this massacre," it said.
The Delhi Police suspects the email was sent with the help of a VPN (virtual private network) or proxy server so that the IP address could not be traced. The Delhi Police Special Cell is likely to file an FIR and conduct the probe, the officer said.
This incident comes just a week after over 100 schools in Delhi and Gujarat's Ahmedabad received similar bomb threats via email, which were later deemed to be hoaxes.
On May 2, emails were sent to 131 schools in Delhi, five in Gurugram, and three in Noida and Greater Noida. Similarly, on May 5, three schools in Ahmedabad received identical threats.
"The Security Operations Control Centre at IGI Airport has received a threat email concerning an explosive device within the premises. Enhanced security protocols are now in effect, and safety measures have been intensified. Legal action has been initiated. No suspicious items have been found as of now," Deputy Commission of Police (IGI) Usha Rangnani said on Sunday.
The officer said that the airport authorities received a threat email at 6 pm.
Security was beefed up in all the hospitals in the city and additional police force deployment was made at the airport, however, nothing suspicious was recovered from any of the locations so far, they said.
(Inputs from media reports)
