Mumbai: Bomb scare at Churchgate station turns out to be hoax

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An unclaimed baggage was found at Churchgate station in Mumbai which turned out to be a hoax. The officials received a call in the morning at around 10.30 am.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) then conducted a through search with sniffer dogs trying to detect any bomb, before declaring the station safe.

Immediately, the RPF and other security agencies launched a search operation involving among other agencies the Mumbai Police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad which lasted for about two hours-and-a-half. The call turned out to be hoax and no bomb was found.

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"Following the call, we have taken precautionary measures and security has been tightened at the station," an RPF official said.

Both the RPF and the Government Railway Police (GRP) are keeping a close watch at the station and on trains, the official said. "The call was received from an unidentified source. An inquiry is underway," he said.

Following the incident, the Western Railway (WR) said security has been beefed up at all the stations. "In the search operation, the agencies did not find anything. As a precautionary measure, security has been tightened at all the stations, including Churchgate," WR's chief public relations officer (CPRO) Ravinder Bhakar said.

Sachin Bhalode, senior divisional security commissioner of RPF (Mumbai division), said, "Security has been stepped up at all the suburban railway stations and we have asked officials to conduct proper security checks."

-with agency inputs