TAKING NO CHANCES: Security personnel checking a car outside Akshardham temple in New Delhi on Friday after the police received an anonymous call claiming that a bomb had been planted inside the temple.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police have been kept on their toes since Thursday night following calls claiming that bombs had been planted at three different places across the Capital, including the mammoth new Akshardham temple. All calls turned out to be a hoax.

The police also received an e-mail threatening that bombs would go off at the historic Red Fort. Following the phone calls and the e-mail, security at all important buildings, institutions and installations across the Capital was stepped up.

The Police Control Room received the first call shortly after midnight on Thursday claiming that a bomb had been planted at the Akshardham temple in East Delhi. Around the same time, another caller claimed that a bomb had been planted at PVR Plaza cinema hall in Connaught Place. Police teams and bomb disposal squads rushed to the two spots along with sniffer dogs and carried out an extensive search. The sniffer dogs at the Akshardham temple could not be taken beyond a certain point but the entire area was thoroughly combed before the call was declared a hoax.

On Friday morning another caller claimed that a bomb would go off at the Anand Vihar Inter-State Bus Terminal in East Delhi. The local police and bomb disposal squads reached the spot and carried out a thorough search of all the outgoing and incoming buses. The call was declared a hoax after a two-hour search.

The e-mail, which was reportedly sent to a Deputy Commissioner of Police and two TV news channels, said there would be "fireworks" at the Red Fort at 8-47 p.m. but no date was mentioned. Senior police officers rushed to the Red Fort and the security arrangements there were further intensified.

Rapid Action Force personnel have been deployed at the Akshardham temple now in the wake of heightened threat perception after the Mumbai train blasts.

The Cyber Cell of the Delhi police has been alerted about the e-mail and efforts are on to ascertain the source of the mail. Also, the police are trying to trace the persons who made the hoax calls.

PTI adds:

The police also carried out extensive searches at Gurdwara Sis Ganj in Old Delhi after it received a phone call that a bomb has been placed there. However, the call turned out to be hoax.

Meanwhile, additional paramilitary forces and Delhi Police commandoes were deployed at the Akshardham Temple and in several markets across the Capital in view of a general threat perception. .

The police also conducted random searches at various places, including bus stations and markets, amid a high alert in the Capital following the Mumbai blasts.

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