Sampark Kranti Express stopped at Sahibabad following bomb hoax call
Darbhanga-bound Sampark Kranti Superfast Express was stopped at the Sahibabad railway station for two hours on Friday afternoon following a bomb scare that turned out to be a hoax.
Darbhanga-bound Sampark Kranti Superfast Express was stopped at the Sahibabad railway station for two hours on Friday afternoon following a bomb scare that turned out to be a hoax.
A Railways official said the train was halted after an alert from the government railway police (GRP) control room in Delhi, who received the information from an anonymous caller.
“The caller alerted the control room about a bomb on the train. The train had left the New Delhi railway station by then and was stopped at the Sahibabad junction, the next station, at 2.15 pm. The train was allowed to continue on its journey around 4.30 pm, after thorough checks by dog squad, a bomb disposal squad, city police and railway protection force. The call turned out to be a hoax,” the official said.
“We had to wait for a long time before we came to know that the bomb scare was a hoax. We had to deboard as the bomb squads were carrying out checks inside the compartments. It caused a delay but safety of passengers is more important,” Vikas Kumar of Siwan district said.
In a similar incident on January 3, Lucknow-bound Swarn Shatabdi Express was stopped at the Ghaziabad junction following a bomb scare. In December 2015, Dibrugrah-bound Rajdhani Express was halted at the Sahibabad railway station for more than two hours due to a bomb alert that turned out to be a hoax.
“A majority of hoax calls are made from public telephone booths. We inform the police about such incidents for legal action against the callers. It inconveniences passengers and disrupts the railway traffic,” the official said.