Wrong information lands tourist couple in trouble

Chennai, May 20 (UNI) Tension prevailed for a while at Kamaraj domestic airport here today, following a message that two human bombs were travelling in the Chennai-bound Air Deccan flight from Port Blair.

Airport sources said they received the message, which later turned out to be a wrong one, from a private airline staff working at the counter in Port Blair airport.

It was said that one Anantharajan (34) and his wife Gayatri (25), who were on a tour to Port Blair a couple of days back, had purchased tickets to Hyderabad from Port Blair via Chennai to visit a relative.

As the relative Prakash informed them that a tense situation continued in and around Hyderabad following the bomb blast at a mosque on May 18, the couple visited the Air Deccan counter at Port Blair this morning and asked the staff to cancel their ticket to Hyderabad and issue a fresh ticket to Chennai.

Mixing up the Hyderabad bomb blast and his conversation with the couple, the staff member informed his counterpart here that a human bomb couple was on board the Port Blair-Chennai flight.

The sources said that based on information, police along with bomb squad, fire brigade and medical team rounded off the flight soon after it landed here.

Though a thorough search was conducted in the aircraft and the couple frisked and their baggages searched, no explosive material was found.

UNI