Bomb hoax at Summer Fields School forces closure
The school in Kailash Colony was evacuated on Friday morning, shortly after classes commenced, due to a bomb threat sent to the school’s official email address
New Delhi
Summer Fields School in Kailash Colony was evacuated on Friday morning, shortly after classes commenced, due to a bomb threat sent to the school’s official email address. However, the police said the threat was found to be a hoax after a thorough check.
Police said they are tracking the case and probing the origin of the email.
“The email came on the official school email address a little after 12am on Friday, stating that there is a bomb on the school premises. It was discovered by the school authorities early on Friday morning, following which the police were contacted within the next 10 minutes and the school was evacuated,” Shalini Agarwal, principal of Summer Fields School, said.
The school was shut for the rest of the day and relevant details were handed to the police, she said.
Deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan said: “On August 2, information was received at police station in Greater Kailash from Summer Fields School, Kailash Colony, GK-1, regarding a bomb threat from an unknown email ID. The school premises were checked by the bomb disposal squads (BDS) team and local police, but nothing was found.”
Over the past few months, bomb hoaxes across schools, hospitals and airport in Delhi have brought daily life to a standstill. On May 1, more than 100 schools across the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) received such hoax threats, prompting large-scale evacuations and probes.
Following the incident, however, the Union home ministry asked schools to prepare a detailed protocol and standard operation procedures (SOP) to handle such emergencies.
Agarwal said that following the discovery of the email, the SOP for systematic evacuation of students was followed. “Our first priority was evacuating the students. We had to start the boarding of students onto school buses. We also started informing parents around 9.15am,” she said.
A parent of a Class 11 student, who did not wish to be named, said, “Students reach school around 8am and we received a message around 9.25am asking parents to pick up students from the school as it is an emergency. We got to know of the bomb threat once we reached the school.”
“There was some general chaos in front of the school as there are well over 3,000 students. There was a traffic jam in front of the school as is expected in such situations,” the parent said.