Hoax bomb threats continue in Coimbatore, Nilgiris; this time for hotels too

COIMBATORE: Three private schools and a private college for women in Coimbatore, two private schools and four hotels in the Nilgiris received hoax bomb threat emails on Monday.

The three private schools at Velandipalayam, Saravanampatty, and Onapalayam besides a private arts college for women in Peelamedu received bomb threats in Coimbatore.

On receiving information, the sleuths of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) carried out a thorough search of these four educational institutions before declaring them to be hoaxes. The schools functioned as usual, but the college was declared a holiday in the afternoon.

A senior police official said all-out efforts were being taken to trace out the culprits with the help of cybercrime cops. “The e-mail sender has been using a virtual private network (VPN), which shows the IP address to be from different countries. The sender is also using dark web platforms like tor browser, which makes it difficult to crack them down,” said an official.

Similar bomb threat emails were received by two private schools and four popular hotels in the Nilgiris. The shocked hotel authorities evacuated the tourists out of their rooms as a precautionary measure. They were allowed after BDS sleuths searched the premises along with sniffer dogs to rule out the threat.

Students of the two private schools in Coonoor were sent home following the hoax bomb threat mail. It was a week ago, four private schools in Coimbatore and one in Nilgiris received hoax bomb threat emails sending school authorities and parents into a tizzy.