Bomb scare at New Delhi railway station delays trains; Lucknow Shatabdi Express evacuated

New Delhi: The Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi was on Sunday halted for searches at Ghaziabad and movement of several other trains disrupted after Northern Railways was alerted about a possible bomb threat to trains plying between Delhi and Kanpur.

The bomb scare came a day after the Pathankot terror attack that left four infiltrators and three security personnel dead.

Delhi Police had communicated to Northern Railways at 6:23 am that there was a bomb threat to the Lucknow Shatabadi. However, by that time the train had already departed from the station at its scheduled time of 6:10 am.

The Shatabadi was subsequently halted at Ghaziabad and thoroughly checked. It was allowed to leave the station at 7:52 am as nothing unusual was found, railway officials said.

"We received an input from GRP-Delhi Police at 6:23 am that there is a possibility of a security threat between Delhi and Kanpur. According to the input, there could be bombs in major trains like Shatabdi, Duronto, Rajdhani, Vaishali Express and Nilanchal Express," Delhi Divisional Railway Manager Arun Arora said.

The Nilanchal Express and the Lucknow Shatabdi were among the trains delayed.

Railway have strengthened security measures at all major railway stations, including New Delhi, Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar in Delhi division after the bomb threat.

DCP (Railways) Dumbere Milind Mahadeo said, "We received a call from the railway control room in the morning in which they said that they had received information about a potential bomb threat on a train plying between Delhi and Kanpur".

Officials were pressed into service immediately and a search operation was launched across all railway stations in the city in connection with all trains on the said route.

A police official said, trains were stopped at Ghaziabad station too and hundreds of officials have been deployed in the operation.

The trains which were to leave in the morning were sanitised for the purpose.

According to the official, the potential threat was conveyed by the Mumbai ATS and the Special Cell of Delhi Police has also been kept in the loop.

Delhi was put on high alert yesterday, following the attack at the IAF base in Pathankot, and security was heightened across the city.