Chandigarh’s Mental Health Institute receives hoax bomb threat e-mail
The threat e-mail was later declared to be hoax, as the police did not find anything suspicious; the threat came on a day when multiple museums in Delhi, including the National Rail Museum, also received bomb threat e-mails
The Mental Health Institute (MHI) in Sector 32 received a bomb threat via e-mail on Wednesday morning, prompting evacuation of patients.
The threat e-mail was later declared to be hoax, as the police did not find anything suspicious. The threat came on a day when multiple museums in Delhi, including the National Rail Museum, also received bomb threat e-mails.
The institute is located less than 1 km from the busy Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). It is flanked by the Regional Institute of Cooperative Management on one side and the Punjab Police Officers’ Institute on the other.
An e-mail from “Adam Lanza” (necronecro93@gmail.com) threatened that “bombs had been planted inside the psychiatric hospital and would soon detonate, everyone will die.” The e-mail also claimed that the group “Terrorizers111” is responsible for the act.
Shortly after the threat e-mail, 115 people inside the building, including 15 patients and 100 staff members, students and doctors, were evacuated. They were all shifted to a nearby wing of the hospital.
Hospital’s deputy medical superintendent Dr Aprajita Lobana said, “A threat call was received around 9.40 am through e-mail. We alerted the higher authorities and immediately shifted patients to a nearby wing.”
Upon being sounded, teams from the bomb detection squad, bomb disposal unit, mobile forensic unit, civil defence, Chandigarh Police, fire wing and a dog squad arrived at the scene. After completely scanning the building, all teams left around 1 pm.
“The e-mail was sent to the hospital’s official email account. Police teams and the bomb squad searched the entire building, but nothing suspicious was found. The building is safe,” said Dalbir Singh, deputy superintendent of police (South).
Chandigarh Police released a statement saying, “A search operation was carried out at Mental Health Institute, Sector 32, with the help of bomb detection squad from 10.05 am to 12.30 pm with all due procedures. No bomb has been found so far during the search. Police are investigating the matter.”
A senior doctor from the institute confirmed that after receiving clearance around 12.45 pm, they shifted all patients back.
An 80-bed hospital, MHI is managed by the department of medical education and research, Chandigarh. The director-principal of GMCH-32 serves as the MHI director, while the head of the psychiatry department at GMCH-32 is the additional director at MHI.
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