Security on high alert in Delhi after dozens of schools receive bomb threats

Dozens of schools in the Indian capital Delhi received bomb threats on Monday (December 9), leading to authorities stepping up security and conducting initial searches on school premises, a police official said.

Two schools received the threats via email on Sunday (December 8) night, which said multiple bombs were planted inside buildings and would be detonated if the sender was not paid $30,000, according to ANI news agency.

Many other schools received the emails on Monday morning, Additional Commissioner of Police Sanjay Tyagi said, prompting school authorities to call parents to take the students home for the day. Parents were seen picking their children up from the gates of some schools as police checked school premises for suspicious items.

In May, more than 50 schools in Delhi and the adjoining suburb of Noida received similar bomb threat emails that turned out to be hoaxes.

Different separatist groups in India issue these kinds of threats against the injustices of the government toward different minorities.