Another massive bomb hoax in Delhi; over 100 hospitals, malls get threat emails

NEW DELHI: Security agencies searched over 100 hospitals and malls in the national capital after they received bomb threat emails on Tuesday. However, it turned out to be a hoax as nothing suspicious was found, officials said.

There have been similar bomb scares in recent months including on May 1 when threatening emails were received by around 150 schools in the Delhi-NCR region.

According to officials, AIIMS, Safdarjung, Sir Ganga Ram, Apollo and Fortis hospitals were among more than 50 health facilities that received the same threat email on Tuesday.

An official said that over 50 malls, including Chanakya Mall, Saket Select City Walk Mall, Ambience Mall and DLF Mall in south Delhi, also received the mail with similar content.

The local police along with the Bomb Detection Teams (BDT), Bomb Detection Squads (BDS) and other authorities conducted thorough checks on the premises of these establishments, ensuring that there was no panic among people.

"Today, two separate emails were received by hospitals and malls. The sender in the subject line of the email wrote 'Bombs in the Building' and sent it at 12.04 pm," an official source said.

According to preliminary investigation, it seems that the sender of mails to hospitals and malls was the same person as the content of the threat was similar.

Another official said that a case will be registered in connection with the threat and the Delhi Police's anti-terror unit Special Cell is likely to launch an investigation.

Giving details about the threat to health facilities, a Delhi Fire Services official said that on Tuesday, a call was received at 1.04 pm from a hospital in Nangloi and another from Primus Hospital at 1.07 pm in central Delhi's Chanakyapuri, informing that they had received bomb threats.

Fire tenders, bomb detection teams and police rushed to the spots. A thorough checking was conducted, the official said.

The mailing list mentioned around 50 government and private hospitals, including AIIMS, Safdarjung, Apollo, Moolchand, Max and Sir Ganga Ram hospitals, the police said.

"We have placed many explosives inside your building. They are placed in black backpacks. The bombs are set to go off in a few hours," the sender said in the email.

"You will end up in a pool of blood, none of you deserve to keep living...," it said.

The email claimed that a "group named 'COURT' is behind this massacre".

"We won't stop causing terror. Give our group's name to News Outlets," it stated.

A police officer said the pattern of these threat emails matches with those sent earlier to hospitals, schools, universities and other government buildings, where the sender did not mention the dateline in the email.

Another police officer said that in the afternoon, a call was received regarding a similar bomb threat at central Delhi's Chanakya Mall and it was found that the emails were sent to 50 big and small malls in Delhi.

These malls include Saket Select City Walk Mall, Ambience Mall and DLF Mall in south Delhi. The malls were also searched thoroughly but nothing suspicious was recovered, the officer said.

In May this year, bomb threat emails were received by many establishments in the national capital, including schools and hospitals.

Delhi's Chacha Nehru Hospital received a bomb threat on April 30, while more than 150 schools got threats from a Russia-based mailing service company on May 1. The bomb scare had sent police and other security agencies into a tizzy while panic-stricken parents rushed to pick up their children.

Twenty hospitals, the IGI Airport and the Northern Railways' CPRO office in Delhi received bomb threats through emails from a Cyprus-based mailing service company on May 12.

Seven Delhi hospitals and the Tihar Jail received bomb threats from the same Cyprus-based mailing service company on May 14.

More recently, several hospitals across Rajasthan including five in Jaipur received email bomb threats last Sunday that turned out to be a hoax.