The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Many schools declare holiday after bomb hoax

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Friday, Sep 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Many schools declare holiday after bomb hoax

Special Correspondent

TAMBARAM: About a dozen private and government schools in Chromepet, Pallavaram and Anakaputhur were closed on Thursday after a bomb scare gripped these areas on Thursday.

Police said an attender working in a private high school in Gandhi Nagar, Nagalkeni, Chromepet, received a call around 9 a.m. The caller, reported to be a woman, had told him that a bomb had been planted on the school premises and that it would go off anytime.

The attender called up the school authorities, who in turn informed the Shankar Nagar police station.

A team conducted a thorough search of the school premises before declaring the call a hoax.

Parents on coming to know of the incident rushed to the spot and insisted on taking their children back.

Though the parents were informed that the bomb threat was only a hoax, they insisted on taking back their children, following which the school was closed.

Information about the incident in this private school spread like wild fire and parents of private and government schools in Chromepet, Anakaputhur, Pallavaram and Pallavaram Cantonment flocked to the schools.

Though the authorities at the schools tried convincing parents that they had not received any threat, under pressure from parents, they declared a holiday and students returned home. Several other schools also declared holiday.

Shankar Nagar police said preliminary investigations revealed that a call originated from a coin-drop Public Call Office attached to a provisions store near the private school in Nagalkeni.

They interrogated the owner, who told police that he was not aware of anyone making a call around 9 a.m., the time when the school received the call.

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