Hoax call holds up Delhi-Lucknow train

The Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi Express was stopped at Ghaziabad station on Sunday morning and passengers evacuated after Delhi Police got a threat call claiming there was a bomb aboard, officials said. It resumed its journey after an extensive search found nothing suspicious.

"We received information of a bomb from Delhi Police around 6.30 a.m. Nothing was discovered when the train was checked at the Ghaziabad railway station," senior railway official Neeraj Sharma told IANS.

Ghaziabad's Government Railway Police station inspector Rashid Ali said they were alerted by Delhi Police that a bomb that will explode within two hours had been planted on the train going to Lucknow.

The train which leaves New Delhi station at 6.10 a.m. and reaches Ghaziabad around 6.50 a.m. was stopped there for more than two hours.

"After we received this information, the train was stopped and searched, which took 45 minutes. In the screening, the GRP, the Railway Protection Force and civil police were involved along with the bomb squad and dog squad. When the joint team became satisfied that the call was a hoax, the train was allowed to proceed," said Ali.

The train reached Lucknow nearly three hours late.

In Delhi, security was beefed up at Nizamuddin and New Delhi railway stations after the incident.

"We have deployed bomb disposal squad and intensified the general checking," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways) Dumbere Millind Mahadeo told IANS. "But there is no need to panic."

The national capital was put on high alert on Saturday, following a terror attack at an Indian Air Force base in Punjab's Pathankot town.