The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Breaking news’ sends parents into a tizzy

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Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008
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‘Breaking news’ sends parents into a tizzy

Staff Reporter

Police have a tough day in responding to hoax calls

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

UNEXPECTED BREAK: Children had an extended weekend as a few schools like Carmel Convent in Jayanagar, Bangalore, closed down following a bomb hoax on Monday.

BANGALORE: Panic gripped parents in the city on Monday afternoon following rumours of bombs being placed in several schools and a college. Educational institutions were flooded with phone calls, and anxious parents turned up to see if their children were all right. The bomb calls turned out to be a hoax but they were an indication of how much the city’s nerves are stretched.

It all started with a local television channel showing a ticker about the police searching Carmel Convent in Jayanagar IV T block. This was followed by the police searching the premises of St. Patrick School, which is near Carmel Convent. This set off frantic phone calls from and between parents.

In fact, the nuns at Carmel Convent told The Hindu that there was no hoax call at all. “There was no hoax call at our school, we came to know about all this only when worried parents rushed through the school gates to pick up their children.”

One such call was made by a parent to an autorickshaw driver who took his son to St. Patrick School in Bharatinagar, quite different from its Jayanagar namesake. The father asked the driver to pick up his son, and the driver who passed on the information to the school management, which then asked its students to go home.

The police came to the school with the bomb detection squad and searched the premises. A thorough search revealed nothing.

Similar was the experience of parents at Carmel Convent, which received a bomb call around 10.30 a.m. As the bomb detection squad was searching the premises, the news spread like wildfire. The Hindu received calls from the public seeking information.

St. Anthony’s High School on Kamaraj Road sent its children home when an autorickshaw driver told them a bomb had been planted there.

A search was carried out in Vijaya Junior College in Jayanagar 4th Block, which received a call about bomb being placed in its generator room around 10.30 a.m.

And then it was the turn of a hotel. The police had to search the Golden Gate hotel on R.V. Road when the staff got a call about a bomb in the cellar. The bomb detection squad checked the premises and did not find any suspicious object.

Even as the searches were being carried out in different parts of the city, the police received calls from a worried public and schools. “The TV reporter is guilty of spreading false information,” said an angry sub-inspector of Bharatinagar Police Station.

The police received information that a bomb has been planted near TVS Cross in Jalahalli. It is said that a watchman found a few people placing some material near the junction and fleeing. He is said to have informed the police. The bomb squad, which rushed to the spot, found that the “explosive device” was only a ball with a wire attached to it.

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