Security was tightened in and around the Sabarimala hill shrine and Pampa following an anonymous bomb threat received by the Kozhikode police commissioner on Wednesday.

 Kozhikode city police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhya said he received the call around 1 pm saying that a bomb had been placed in Sabarimala and it would go off at 3.30 pm. The phone call was made from the number 0096612273276 which was traced to a public telephone booth in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Soon, the police and bomb squad swung into action and carried out elaborate search operations by opening up even the irumudikettu carried by the pilgrims. Entry to the pathinettampadi (holy 18 steps) was also regulated for sometime. However, no signs of a bomb were unearthed.

Incidentally, similar fake bomb threats were received a couple of times early this year from Riyadh one of which even threatened to eliminate Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.

The Ayyappa temple had been witnessing unprecedented rush ever since it opened on November 17 for the two-month-long Mandalam-Makaravilaku festival season.