Airport partially evacuated after bomb threat call
The evacuation was carried out on the backdrop of a high alert issued in the city following the terror attack in Kashmir last month.
Mumbai: A part of terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) of Mumbai was evacuated on Saturday morning after airport authorities received a non-specific bomb threat call.
The evacuation was carried out on the backdrop of a high alert issued in the city following the terror attack in Kashmir last month. A Mumbai airport official said security teams were carrying out searches in the premises.
“Mumbai airport authorities received a call around 11.00 am threatening a bomb explosion at the international terminal in the next 12 hours. Following this, the offices of various airlines, and pre-departure and arrival areas were evacuated,” the official said.
He said that the bomb threat assessment committee (BTAC) was convened to assess the “threat call”. As a mitigation measure, the committee decided to evacuate the departure, pre-security hold and meet and greet areas of terminal 2, he added.
Additional commissioner of police (west region) Manoj Kumar Sharma said, “In light of the call, a thorough search was conducted in the concerned area. Nothing suspicious was found.”
The Sahar police said that as the call was categorised as “non-specific”, no FIR was registered. The police has deployed additional patrolling units around the airport and is undertaking security exercises in collaboration with the Central Industrial Security Force and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, officers said.
Already, operations at the Mumbai airport have been shut due to ongoing runway maintenance and repair work, which commenced on February 7.