Delhi Police writes to telecom service providers to trace 'hoax bomb' caller from UAE

The Delhi Police has written to telecom service providers to trace the UAE caller who made a "hoax bomb call" to the office of an airline at the Delhi airport, police said on Friday.

Police were informed about a "bomb in flight which is coming to Delhi" call at around 6 pm on Monday, they said.

According to police, one Pankaj of the Etihad Airlines received a call on a landline number wherein the caller stated that there was a bomb under a seat of one of the planes of the airline, which was scheduled to land at the Delhi airport from Abu Dhabi.

At least 12 such phone calls were received from the same number within a span of half an hour, they said, adding the call was traced to the UAE.

After two hours of thorough checking by the security agencies and investigations, the call was declared as "non-specific", police said.

"The call was made from Dubai and we have written to all the telecom service providers to identify the network and seek details of the owner of the number from which the calls were made," said Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Airport).

He said the Etihad Airlines flight number 244 landed safely at 6:38 pm at the Delhi airport from Abu Dhabi, adding a case was registered in the matter.

In total, 161 passengers on board the flight arrived safely at the airport, Bhatia added.