Chandigarh, May 30 (PTI) The nine-floor Haryana civil secretariat building here was evacuated on Friday afternoon after a bomb threat was received on email which later turned out to be a hoax, officials said.
Personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and police combed the premises during a more than two-hour long exercise. The alert about the bomb threat was sounded by the Haryana CID, they said.
The e-mail threat message claimed that explosives had allegedly been planted in the secretariat premises including the chief minister's office in the building.
Security personnel later also conducted searches around Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini's residence close by.
"The Haryana civil secretariat was evacuated. Announcements were made by the CISF and Chandigarh police personnel asking those inside to come out," Chandigarh Deputy Superintendent of Police Udaypal Singh said.
However, after a thorough search no explosive or any suspicious substance was found, he said.
The CISF is deployed round-the-clock at the Haryana civil secretariat in Chandigarh's Sector 1.
The bomb disposal squad, fire brigade, ambulance, quick reaction teams and the dog squad reached the secretariat premises in the high security area as soon as police were alerted, officials said.
Last week, on May 22, the Punjab and Haryana High Court received a similar bomb threat e-mails, prompting the Chandigarh Police to get the court premises evacuated for a brief period. However, it later turned out to be a hoax.