Forty-one airports, including in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna and Jaipur, received bomb threat emails on Tuesday, prompting authorities to scramble contingency measures and carry out anti-sabotage checks that lasted hours, and each of them was found to be a hoax, official sources said.Security was beefed up as agencies swept the airport terminals after the emails were received around 12.40 pm from the ID [email protected].
The airports in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Jabalpur were among those that received the hoax threats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi on Tuesday, the first time after the Lok Sabha poll results were declared on June 4.
An online group called “KNR” is suspected to be behind these hoax threat emails. The group reportedly issued similar emails to several schools in the Delhi-National Capital Region on May 1, the sources said.
The emails received by the airports carried almost the identical message: “Hello, there are explosives hidden in the Airport. The bombs will soon explode. You will all die.”
The airports put into action contingency plans and carried out anti-sabotage checks following recommendations of their respective Bomb Threat Assessment Committees, the sources said.