Bomb scare force police to evacuate train passengers

BANGALORE: Railway and Police authorities on Sunday sounded an emergency alert and evacuated passengers of the Bangalore-bound Karnataka Express at Puttaparthi following an anonymous call that a bomb had been planted in the train which later turned out to be hoax.

As the train was about to reach Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, Railway authorities in Dharamavaram, who had received the call that a bomb had been planted in one of the coaches, alerted their counterparts in Puttaparthi, police said.

Soon after the train entered the Puttaparthi station, a 15-member police team evacuated passengers, pressed sniffer dog, searched the train and declared the call a hoax.

The railway authorities then cleared the train for onward journey.