PTI Office in Chennai Becomes Latest Target of Hoax Bomb Threat
CHENNAI – The Press Trust of India (PTI) office in Chennai was briefly evacuated on Friday after receiving a bomb threat via email. Police conducted a thorough search of the building and declared it a hoax, marking the latest in a series of disruptive false alarms across the city.
According to a senior police official, a team was immediately dispatched to the news agency’s office in the Kodambakkam area after the threat was reported. Employees were safely moved out of the building while a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), along with a sniffer dog unit, secured and searched the premises. No suspicious items were found.
Investigators revealed that the threatening email was sent from a fake account to the Director General of Police (DGP)’s office.
This incident is part of a larger pattern. “We have received about 30 email bomb threats in the last month, and all of them have turned out to be hoaxes,” the official told PTI. He added that police are actively working to trace the IP addresses used to send the malicious emails to identify the person responsible.
Other high-profile targets in this recent wave of threats have included the office and residence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, the home of actor-politician Vijay, the state BJP headquarters, and the office of a local Tamil news channel.
