Delhi Police to train teachers to deal with bomb threats; over 100 schools targeted in last 11 days

NEW DELHI: With a series of hoax bomb threats triggering panic among the Delhi schools, the Delhi police has announced plans to organise training for teachers and school staff to deal with such a crisis. The bomb threat emails have affected more than 100 Delhi schools in the last 11 days.

Delhi Police will organise a seminar in collaboration with the education department for teachers of all government and private schools, an official said. "We will teach how to stay calm, react and coordinate with police during a bomb threat in schools," said the deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam told the PTI.

He said the training session will also spread awareness about cybercrimes. Multiple schools in Delhi have received hoax bomb threats in the last 10 days. The threats disrupted classes and triggered multi-agency search operations.

In a bizarre revelation, the police department found that at least three schools in Venkateshwar Global School, as well as schools in Rohini, and Paschim Vihar received bomb threat emails from their students in an attempt to postpone the exams or simply to shut the schools, the department said earlier.

The police informed that the emails were sent through a Virtual Private Network (VPN), making it tough for them to locate the perpetrators. The frequent bomb threats have sent shock waves to more than 100 Delhi schools in the last 11 days. Moreover, since May this year, over 50 bomb threat emails have targeted schools, hospitals, airports in the national capital. The police are yet to make a breakthrough in the case.

DPS, Dwarka, DPS RK Puram, Crescent Public School in Saraswati Vihar, northwest Delhi, Bhatnagar International School in Paschim Vihar, Cambridge School in Shri Niwas Puri, and DPS Amar Colony in East of Kailash, South Delhi Public School in Defence Colony, Delhi Police Public School in Safdarjung, and Venkateshwar Global School in Rohini were among schools which received bomb threats earlier this month.