Bhubaneswar: The Regional Passport Office in Bhubaneswar received a bomb threat on via email on Thursday, prompting authorities to launch immediate evacuation of the building.
As per information, police and security teams carried out an intensive search operation in and around the building following the threat message.
Officials said the threatening message claimed that a bomb had been planted inside the office building. After receiving the email, authorities evacuated all employees and visitors and restricted public access to the premises as a precautionary measure.
A police team along with the bomb disposal squad and dog squad rushed to the spot and launched a thorough search. Teams used metal detectors to comb through the entire office building, while sniffer dogs were deployed to check for any suspicious items or explosives.
However, no explosive device was found after extensive search of rooms on all floors of the building and surrounding areas. The threat has been declared a hoax, similar to recent incidents in some places of the state.
This incident comes amid a series of bomb threats in Bhubaneswar over the past several days. Earlier, the Bhubaneswar District Court complex also received a similar email threat warning of an explosion which triggered panic, evacuation, and searches by Badagada police and security personnel. That too turned out to be a hoax with no explosives found.
Police have initiated an investigation to trace the origin of the email sender(s) in the passport office case and are examining whether these threats are connected as part of a larger pattern of hoax emails targeting public institutions.
