Lucknow, February 18: In a bizarre incident, a bomb hoax in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday delayed the Lucknow-Barauni Express train by over an hour, causing major inconvenience to all the passengers. According to reports, the station master at Piparsand station received a call about a bomb on the train which causes panic among the passengers. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the station master at Piparsand, about 25km from Lucknow, alerted the Government Railway Police (GRP) and other officials about the call. Soon after, the bomb disposal squad and other teams rushed to the spot.

Reports inform that the train which was heading towards Lucknow, was detained by police at Piparsand station to conduct a search. However, after the search was completed, it was believed to be a hoax call by some miscreant as the police couldn't find anything. GRP superintendent of police (Lucknow) Saumitra Yadav said,  “We found nothing onboard. It was a hoax call". The HT report further adds that the Lucknow-Barauni Express train was detained for more than an hour at the station, for the search operation.

The Barauni - Lucknow Express train belongs to East Central Railway zone and runs between Barauni Junction and Lucknow Junction in India. It is currently being operated with 15203/15204 train numbers on a daily basis.

In December 2018, a similar incident had taken place in Rajasthan's Jaipur where traffic was diverted in parts of the pink city and areas were cordoned off after an unidentified caller told the police control room that bombs had been planted at three locations in the city. According to reports, the caller told the police that bombs had been planted at Hanuman Temple in Chandpole, Sanganeri Gate and Jaipur airport.

Earlier this month, a hoax call about a bomb in Ahmedabad airport created panic among the passengers. According to a report by PTI, an unidentified person had called up the Air India office in Mumbai claiming that a bomb had been placed at the international terminal of Ahmedabad Airport. The information about the threat was then passed airport officials. However, following deliberations, the authorities came to the conclusion that there was no merit in the threat call and assessed the call as "non-specific".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 18, 2019 12:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).