Private schools in Agra, Meerut, Kanpur receive bomb threat emails

Normal academic activities have resumed, an officer said, adding the cyber cell has initiated an investigation into the origin of the emails.

Agra/Meerut/Kanpur: Private schools in Agra, Meerut and Kanpur received bomb threats through email on Wednesday, prompting extensive searches by bomb disposal and dog squads, but nothing has been found yet, police said.

Agra Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vinayak Bhosale said Shri Ram School and Global School in the city received threatening emails.

"Both schools were thoroughly checked by the bomb disposal squad and dog squad. No suspicious items were found in either of the schools," he said.

Normal academic activities have resumed, the officer said, adding the cyber cell has initiated an investigation into the origin of the emails.

"Preliminary findings indicate that these emails originated from Kolkata," ACP Bhosale said, adding that a more in-depth investigation was underway to trace the culprits.

In Meerut, a threat email was sent to the Diwan Public School on Tuesday afternoon, prompting the school authorities to inform the district magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police.

District Magistrate V K Singh said, "All schools in Meerut are currently closed (due to Kanwar Yatra), so there was no panic." Cyber and surveillance teams are investigating the email, which reportedly originated from Kolkata, said Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada.

In Kanpur, as many as 15 prominent schools received similar threats, a senior official said.

After a threat email sent to the official email addresses of the schools, Bomb disposal Squads (BDS), Anti Sabotage Check teams, Sniffer Dog squads and Intelligence units were activacted, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Ashutosh Kumar.

“The schools were evacuated as a precaution and school premises were searched thoroughly vut nothing suspicious was found," he added.

“We have not received any such threat mails directly on department's official emails or mobiles, but we are treating the situation with utmost care”, the officer said.

The Cyber Cell officials have been asked to investigate the matter and find out the source of the threat mails and its senders, he said.

“Intelligence units have also been pressed into the task to trace the location and source of the emails," the officer added.

After getting information about the threat to make explosions, the parents rushed to the schools to take their children that led to chaotic situations.

Over a year ago, about 10 schools received the bomb threats emails which later turned to be hoaxes.