Several schools in Himachal receive hoax bomb threats

    Shimla, Jul 23 (PTI) Multiple schools here received bomb threat emails on Wednesday morning, triggering panic among students and their parents. The threats later turned out to be hoaxes, according to police.
    After receiving information about the threats, police and CID, along with bomb squads, responded promptly, officials said.
    As the news broke, frantic parents called schools to enquire about the safety of their children and rushed to pick them up.
    Police did not disclose the names of the schools which received the threats. Police vehicles and teams were seen outside some schools in Shimla main town and the suburbs of Sanjauli-Dhalli.
    Bomb disposal squads searched schools' premises extensively, but no explosives or suspicious materials were found, Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Tewari said in a statement issued here.
    He appealed to the public to remain calm and not panic or spread rumours. The state police is fully prepared and competent to deal with such threats, he said.
    In some schools, students were shifted to open places like grounds while the searches were underway. The schools resumed normal functioning post-lunch.
    Efforts are being made to trace the IP address of the email sender. Police are also coordinating with their counterparts in other states which received similar threats, an official told PTI.
    Two private schools in Uttar Pradesh's Agra also received bomb threat emails on Wednesday morning.
    Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh High Court, district court premises, offices of deputy commissioners and the state secretariat received bomb threats, but all of them turned out to be hoaxes.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)