Panic grips Chennai airport following human bomb threat

CHENNAI: Panic gripped at the Anna International airport here in the early hours of Tuesday, following an anonymous call that a human bomb, travelling on the Chennai-bound Qatar Airlines flight from Doha, will blow himself up.

According to airport sources here, a Sub Inspector of Police, manning the control room at Mangalore, in Karnataka, received the call and immediately informed the Director General of Police, Karnataka, who alerted his counterpart in Tamil Nadu.

State Director General of Police D Mukherjee quickly alerted the security personnel at the airport here, who swung into action. As soon as the aircraft carrying 177 passengers landed, a thorough check was conducted, but nothing was found and the call turned out to be a hoax, sources said.   

The security personnel again scanned the empty aircraft. The 134 Doha-bound passengers and their baggage were frisked before they were allowed to board the aircraft.

The plane left for Doha after a delay of one hour, sources said.