Mumbai: Bomb scare rocks Nalasopara school

Bomb detection and disposal squad members at Blooming Bud`s English High School in Nalasopara East on Monday. Pic/Hanif Patel

Panic prevailed in a Nalasopara school on Monday evening due to a bomb hoax. An unidentified person called the landline number of the Tulinj police station around 3.30 pm claiming that a bomb had been planted in the backpack of a student of Blooming Bud's English High School in Nalasopara East.

The cops rushed to the school, evacuated everyone and checked every school bag in sight but found nothing.

Bomb detection and disposal squads from Palghar and Thane were also informed about the situation at 3.30 pm but they arrived at the school at 7.58 pm and 8.20 pm, respectively.

According to the police, there is no such squad in the Mira-Bhayandar-Vasai-Virar (MBVV) area and the police have approached the government and written a letter to make this emergency service available as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Tulinj police station has registered an FIR in connection with the hoax call and initiated an investigation into the hoax call.

ACP Vinayak Narale of the Tulinj division told mid-day, "After the call was received, our team rushed to the spot and evacuated the entire premises before asking all the kids to keep their bags inside the school. We checked the bags but didn' t find anything. As we don' t have a bomb dog squad for such searches in the MBVV area, we sought the Palghar and Thane divisions' bomb squad teams' help."

In the run-up to Independence Day, the city has been receiving more hoax calls than usual. The Mumbai Police have managed to arrest nine people so far and have registered 25 cases in the past six months. The police believe that the arrested individuals had acted out under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The BKC police recently arrested an individual from Latur who called the helpline number and claimed that serial blasts would occur in Dadar on August 15.