Three top Ooty hotels receive hoax bomb threats

COIMBATORE: Panic gripped as three prominent hotels in Ooty received hoax bomb threats on Sunday sending tourists into a tizzy.

On receiving information regarding bomb threats, the sleuths of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) carried out a thorough search of these hotels.

All the rooms and surrounding premises were checked with detectors, while a sniffer dog was also pressed into service.

A senior police official said the email was sent using a virtual private network (VPN) that shows the IP address to be from different countries.

The sender is also using dark web platforms which makes it difficult to crack them down, the official said.

As checks were underway, the panicked tourists evacuated their rooms in precaution.

Similar bomb threat emails were received earlier by a few private schools and popular hotels in the Nilgiris. Lastly, a Government Medical College also received a threat this month.

In these previous cases, the police were unable to trace the origination of the hoax threat emails.

Meanwhile, an investigation is on by sleuths of the cybercrime wing. Those involved in the hotel sector urged the police to crack down on such hoax emails and their senders as it has been affecting their business.