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Bengaluru: On Friday morning, a wave of panic swept through several schools in Bengaluru. 44 Private schools including prominent institutions such as NEEV, KLAY, and Vidyashilp in Bengaluru received bomb threats through email, police said. The email claimed that explosives had been planted on school premises.
Police were immediately notified and have been searching the schools for any suspicious objects. As news of the threats spread, panic spread and parents of students from other schools rushed to collect their children, fearing for their safety.
Bomb disposal squads have been dispatched to all the schools that received the bomb threat, including ones in Whitefield, Koremangala, Basveshnagar, Yalahanka, and Sadashivanagar.
Despite indications that the bomb threats may be hoaxes, police are conducting thorough searches of the premises with the help of Bomb Disposal Squads. They have not yet confirmed the presence of any bombs at any of the schools. Around 15,000 students and staff evacuated from the schools.
In the wake of #bombthreat, several other schools have implemented safety measures and dismissed students early.
Bomb squad have been sent! NEEV, KLAY, and Vidyashilp are some of the schools where checks are being conducted.#Bombthreat #Bengaluru #BengaluruSchools pic.twitter.com/q42N2LEgjS
— Madhuri Adnal (@madhuriadnal) December 1, 2023
This is not the first time that Bengaluru schools have been targeted with such threats. These emails are very similar to a series of fake bomb threats sent to several schools in the city in 2022. At the time, the threats turned out to be hearsay, but the memory of that incident has created a deep sense of caution in the minds of school authorities and parents alike.
Social media platforms were flooded with rumors and speculation, and parents of students at schools that had not received bomb threats were also concerned.
On this occasion the emails sent were from different addresses, with the senders skillfully obscuring the IP addresses to disguise their origin. This poses a tough challenge for the city’s cyber crime unit, which is tasked with busting anonymous senders. An investigation into similar threats last year revealed that a minor from Tamil Nadu was responsible. They used a specially created application to send emails with masked IP addresses. However, the person who actually sent the email remains a mystery.
In response to the threats, schools took immediate action. For example, the NEEV school immediately informed parents about the threat and advised their children to return home following a bomb squad recommendation. Anti-sabotage and bomb squads of the city police were brought into action, and schools were thoroughly checked for any suspicious objects.
As schools in Bengaluru grapple with this worrying threat, the focus is on ensuring the safety of children and quickly exposing the culprits behind these threats. The city’s law enforcement agencies are working against time to ensure peace of mind for worried parents and school officials.
