Multiple schools in Bengaluru received ‘hoax’ bomb threat, 5000 children evacuated; Police have launched multi-pronged investigation

More than 40 schools in Bengaluru had received bomb threats via email on Friday morning, forcing authorities to jump into action and initiate probe. They turned out to be hoax, as confirmed by police officials. Threat emails were simultaneously received by multiple school authorities, prompting police to evacuate nearly 5000 students. 

“Certain schools in Bengaluru city have received emails today morning indicating ‘bomb threat’. Anti sabotage and bomb detection squads have been pressed into service to verify and ascertain. The calls seem to be hoax. Even then all efforts will be made to trace the culprits,” Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City, B Dayananda has posted on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter)

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has commissioned a thorough investigation into the matter, directing police to get to the bottom of the case. It is a grim reminder of a similar hoax message schools had received in April 2022. Police officials confirm the threat messages were sent from various addresses after masking the IP address so that the origin isn’t traced. Fearing to take any chance, even schools that hadn’t received any threat message had allowed parents to take their wards home, as a precautionary measure. 

“We are encountering an unexpected situation at school today. The school has received a security threat from unknown sources. As we hold the safety of our children at utmost priority, we have decided to disperse the students immediately,” read a message from the NEEV School sent to parents. It is one of the, at least 44 schools, that had received the alleged bomb threat. 

Police claim in 2022 the hoax message was sent from the email ids that belonged to a minor in Tamil Nadu who had used applications to mask the IP. Police are yet to confirm if Friday’s threats were of similar pattern and na