Bomb hoax at Thai consulate in Kolkata

Kolkata, Feb 29: The Thai consulate here received a hoax e-mail and a telephone call this morning about presence of a bomb on its premises, triggering panic among the staff.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) Gaurav Sharma told PTI, an e-mail stating explosives have been placed inside the building was received on the official address of Royal Thai Consulate-General at around 7.35 am and the call was made to the office at around 9.55 am.

Officials at the consulate informed Gariahat police station and a bomb disposal squad and a dog squad were rushed. The building was evacuated and a thorough search was conducted but nothing was found and the police declared the call and the mail as hoax.

"We have not found anything ... It was a hoax call. We are checking who is behind this," Sharma said, adding the police were trying to locate the number from which the call was made. He did not say anything on the e-mail. According to an officer at the Consulate, the e-mail was noticed at around 9.35 am soon after the office opened.

"We received the call at around 9.55 am from a person who identified himself as Mr Ghosh from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) telling us that explosives have reached our office and we must inform the police.

The person did not disclose which department of the IB he was calling from despite asking repeatedly and hung up midway," the officer said.

PTI