BENGALURU: Anxious moments prevailed among authorities of at least seven schools in Bengaluru which received bomb threat mails on Friday morning. Initially, both parents and children were kept in the dark about the situation by school authorities, and until the children were evacuated from school, before the news broke.
It was only after children reached home early, and parents rushed to school out of curiosity to find out the reason, and when parents were asked to pick up their wards, did they realise the gravity of the situation, and turned panicky and anxious.
When The Indian Public School at Govindapura received the threat mail at 11.36am, special classes were going on for over 350 students from pre-nursery to Class 10, to catch up with lessons missed due to the pandemic. The school did not break for summer vacation, sources said.
Naazima, a resident of Hennur and parent of a boy studying in Class 7 at The Indian Public School, said, “We received a WhatApp message on the Class 7 group by the class teacher, to pick up the students. I just rushed. There was no clue about the bomb threat mail. One cannot play with emotions of parents with such hoax threats,” she said.
When St Vincent Palloti School in Babusahibpalya received the mail at 10am, teachers were holding classes for students from Class 6 to 9, according to school authorities. A parent whose child studies at St Vincent Palloti School said, “Students had classes between 8am and 3.30pm. But we were surprised why children reached home early, and shocked to hear that police had visited school. So we rushed to school to check. There were many cops and sniffer dogs at the school.”