A bomb scare in Delhi Metro’s HUDA City Centre station sent the Haryana Police and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) into a tizzy on Wednesday, disrupting Metro services for nearly two hours at the Gurgaon station. However, it later turned out to be a hoax.
Already fearing similar siege that happened in Pakistan’s Peshawar and Australia’s Sydney, the bomb scare threw passengers in total panic mode. “I was returning from work in Gurgaon. The Metro stopped abruptly and hardly moved for almost over an hour. later, we got to know that it was a bomb scare,” said Amit Sharma, a passenger aboard the Metro, which was stopped midway.
“Train services on line 2 are running normal except Huda City Centre station where entry/exit of passengers was stopped as per the advice of the Haryana Police from 4 pm till 5.56 pm due to bomb threat call received by it. The station was reopened at 5.56 pm after receiving clearance from police, and nothing was found,” a DMRC spokesperson said.
The Gurgaon police control room received a call at 2.10 pm. The caller claimed that bombs were planted at Huda City Centre Metro Station, Vyapar Kendra in Sushant lok area and Galleria Market in New Gurgaon. Soon after receiving the call, police evacuated the locations.
Bomb detection and disposal teams of Gurgaon Police were pressed into service and the search operation took four hours to complete.
“We searched these locations thoroughly and found no such material from these locations,” said Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk, adding that Metro services was suspended at HUDA City Centre for some time.
Virk said that a car, suspected to be carrying explosives, was thoroughly checked but nothing was found in it.
The mobile number used in making the hoax call is being traced and police would soon apprehend the caller, the Commissioner said.
Meanwhile, security was beefed up at Gurgaon Rapid Metro, which connects to Delhi Metro at its Sikanderpur station. “We have tightened security and every person entering the station is being thoroughly frisked,” said a Rapid Metro spokesperson.