KALABURAGI, 24 JUNE

The Kalaburagi airport received a bomb threat via email on Monday which turned out to be a hoax after a thorough search operation, police said. Bomb disposal and dog squads were immediately pressed into action on the airport premises, they said. Kalaburagi Police Commissioner Chethan R told PTI that the Airport Director Chilaka Mahesh received an email from an anonymous ID this morning claiming that explosives have been planted inside the airport premises.

"As soon as we received information about a bomb threat email at Kalaburagi domestic airport, a bomb disposal squad was dispatched. All the passengers on the flight (which landed from Bengaluru) were de-boarded," he said. All the airport staff and passengers were shifted to a safer place while an intensive and thorough search operation was carried out.

After hours of search operation, the police declared that the threat was a hoax as no "suspicious" object was found. Mahesh said a thorough search operation was carried out by the bomb disposal squad and security agencies. "An email was received at 6.54 am claiming five bombs were kept in the bathroom of the terminal building.

 Immediately, we alerted the state mechanism, bomb disposal squad, state police, central intelligence bureau...we also conducted a bomb threat assessment meeting and immediately we vacated all the passengers from the building, "As soon as the flight landed from Bengaluru, it was pushed into an isolation bay and all passengers and their luggage were also screened and taken via the operational gate," he said.