Panic spread in the city on Monday after the police control room received a threat call of bombs at two schools in the Valasaravakkam area.
News of the threat spread like wildfire, leading to hundreds of parents making desperate calls to check about the safety of their children in the schools in west Chennai.
A senior officer of the Chennai city police said an unidentified caller said bombs had been placed in two schools in Alwarthirunagar, near Valasaravakkam, and warned the police to take preventive action.
Based on the call, police personnel from Valasaravakkam and Virugambakkam police stations rushed to the two schools and directed the school management to evacuate the students from the school premises by announcing half-day leave.
P. Vijayalakshmi, principal, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Virugambakkam, said parents had called the school after hearing about the suspected bomb threat.
“When we started receiving their calls, we contacted the local police station to get authentic information and conveyed it to the parents. Students went home as per the regular timings,” she said.
Personnel from the bomb squad, assisted by sniffer dogs, inspected the classrooms in the two schools and, finding nothing, declared the calls a hoax.
A senior police officer said, based on complaints filed by the two schools, the cyber crime department was investigating the phone number to identify the caller.
The police also suspect that some students may have made the prank call, as exams were to be held in these two schools, he added.
Mediaperson injuredA photographer of The Hindu Tamil, M. Prabhu, was injured after he was roughed up and pushed down by a couple of security personnel on duty at one of the private schools.
Mr. Prabhu had to be referred to Government Royapettah Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.
Chennai Press Club and Tamil Nadu Press Photographers’ Association have condemned the incident and also met senior police officers, urging them to take stringent action against the security personnel.