Bomb Scares Across Delhi Schools, Declared a “Hoax”
Numerous schools received an e-mail threatening explosions.
New Delhi, May 1, 2024: School children in the Indian National Capital Region (NCR) had a truncated school day today, but not for a welcome reason. The youngsters as well as their teachers and sub-staff members just had their lives threatened. About 60 schools in New Delhi and 40 in the satellite town of Noida received bomb scares. The threatening e-mails were delivered on the morning of Wednesday, May 1, resulting in evacuation of all the targeted centres. In one case, students writing an exam were instructed to stop and flee the venue.
According to the News 18 channel, the local fire control room received 97 distress calls by noon. On getting wind of the possible explosions, parents rushed to the schools to bring their children home. Security was bolstered across the NRC while bomb squads and sniffer dogs scoured all the learning centres. Thankfully, the assigned personnel did not discover explosive devices of any kind and the scare was declared a hoax. Most of the schools threatened by the mysterious missive were prominent secondary schools in the region.
Intelligence agencies have reportedly traced the e-mail to a Russian domain, thus ruling out the hand of any terrorist organisation. However, investigations are still underway. Delhi Education Minister Atishi Marlena has called the incident “unfortunate” and that “strict action be taken against the accused”, while also urging parents “not to panic”.
While the magnitude of this threat is unprecedented, this is not the first time Delhi finds itself embroiled in such a situation. Only in February this year, the Delhi Public School (DPS) in the National Capital’s R.K. Puram area received a bomb scare. Hopefully, such lack of security doesn’t lead to truancy and that there aren’t any drop-outs who fear for their lives. After all, corporal punishment has long since been outlawed.
