By Sethuraman N R
(Reuters) – Fifteen schools in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru cancelled classes on Friday in response to emailed bomb threats, evacuating the premises as police and bomb detection squads launched search efforts.
But the emails appeared to be a hoax, said B Dayananda, the top police officer in the city, also known as “India’s Silicon Valley”, since it is home to multinationals such as Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Infosys.
“Last year also, similar hoax emails were sent, and these (new mails) also appear to be a hoax,” Dayananda, the police commissioner, told Reuters. “We will verify and try and find out who has sent these emails.”
He said the city had stopped short of closing all schools, but added, “We have sent anti-sabotage teams to all the schools.”
In April 2022, six Bengaluru schools had received similar bomb threats.
The threat recipients included schools such as Deens Academy, Neev Academy, Legacy School and Inventure Academy, according to the parents of some students, as well as notices seen by Reuters.
Many schools that did not get the threat also sent notices to reassure parents.
(Reporting by Sethuraman N R, Euan Rocha, Supriya Kurane, Ashna Teresa Britto and Kashish Tandon; Writing by Dhanya Skariachan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)