The hoax bomb threat menace continued for the aviation industry on Sunday as more than 50 flights received calls, keeping security agencies on their toes. The Sri Varadaraja Swamy temple in Tirupati and a couple of hotels there, as also over a dozen prominent hotels in Lucknow received similar threats.
Flights which received hoax bomb threats included 18 of IndiGo airlines, 17 of Vistara and 15 of Akasa. Most of the threats were issued through social media posts.
While this is the first time a bomb threat was sent to a temple in Tirupati, at least half a dozen hotels in the temple city received hoax bomb threats over the past three days. The Alipiri police received a mail regarding the bomb threat at the TTD-run temple.
Bomb disposal teams and sniffer dogs were deployed at Hotel Renest and Pai Viceroy, situated near the Kapila Teertham circle, as well as the Sri Varadaraja Swamy temple. The e-mail threats again mentioned the alleged drug kingpin Jaffer Sadiq and the ISI.
In Vijayawada, Hotel Taj Vivanta received a bomb threat. Inspector S S S V Nagaraju said extensive searches at the hotel revealed it was a hoax threat.
Panic gripped Lucknow after nine prominent hotels received bomb threats demanding a ransom of Rs 50 lakh on Sunday. The email, sent around 8.03 am, claimed that explosive devices had been planted in lack bags across all the hotel premises.
The sender warned that any attempt to defuse them would lead to mass casualties, prompting an emergency response.
The Lucknow police roped in the Cyber Cell to trace the origin of the email, while bomb disposal and dog squads were deployed to begin large-scale evacuations.
The hotels mentioned in the threatening email are situated in tony areas of Lucknow, including Gomti Nagar, Hazratganj, Sarojininagar, Alambagh and Krishnanagar. The mail from Adam Lanza Sandyhook childkilling@outlook.com had ‘Bombs in the HOTEL’ in the subject line. It was sent to the nine hotels at 8.03 am.https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2024/Oct/28/flights-tirupati-shrine-hotels-get-bomb-threats