Mental health institute on Chandigarh's GMCH-32 complex receives bomb threat over email; turns out to be hoax

Chandigarh, June 12

The mental health institute at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, here received a bomb threat over email on Wednesday, which turned out to be hoax, police said.

After the threat mail was received at 9.40 am, the building was vacated and the area sealed. The patients and employees were moved to safety and a search operation was initiated, police said.

According to officials, the e-mail was sent by a user ID ‘Adam Lanza’ from ‘necronecro93@gmail.com’. The sender identified itself as ‘Terrorizers111’ group.

The cyber cell is verifying the source of the email and the IP address from where the email was generated.

An official of the institute claimed the same email has been sent to a number of hospitals in Delhi and south India.

A Chandigarh police official said they cordoned off the area and thoroughly searched the premises of the mental health institute but nothing was found.

“We did not find anything,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (South) Dalvir Singh said.

Besides police personnel, a bomb disposal squad, a dog squad and fire department officials were also deputed at the site after police were informed.

Dr Aparajita, the deputy medical superintendent of the Mental Health Institute, told reporters earlier in the day that the hospital received the bomb threat over email in the morning.

There were about 100 people, including patients, doctors and other employees at the hospital at the time, she said.

“We received an email. In addition to our centre, the email was sent to many psychiatry hospitals in the country. It was mentioned that there is a bomb in the hospital,” the doctor said.

Replying to a question, Dr Aparajita said, “We forwarded the email to the police. The sender’s name… did not appear to be known. It has been sent from a personal email id.”

Asked which other hospitals were mentioned in the email, she said, “It had names of some hospitals in Delhi, some in south India and CIP (Central Institute of Psychiatry), Ranchi.”

“In the email, it was written that there is a bomb in the hospital and everyone will die,” the deputy medical superintendent said. With PTI