Anonymous email threatens to blow up Lucknow railway station

Tension prevailed at Lucknow's historic Charbagh railway station after a local private TV channel claimed to have received an email on Monday threatening to blow up the station.

No sooner than the channel conveyed the mail to police authorities, Additional Director General of police (railways) A K Jain rushed to the railway station alongwith a contingent of cops. He was followed by a special anti-bomb squad which went about scanning the entire station in search of the suspected explosive.

"We have not discovered any bomb or explosive at or around the railway station so far", Jain told reporters.

Jain suspects the e-mail to be the handiwork of some mischief-maker. "But we still cannot take any chances, therefore it is important for us to sanitise every nook and corner of the railway station", he said. In the light of Sunday's blast at the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, the police were not ready to take the matter lightly.

Meanwhile, the police have tracked down the source of the mail to a private engineering college located in Bijnore village on the outskirts of the state capital. "We have even identified the computer from which the mail was sent and we hope to zero-in on the persons who played the hoax," said Jain.

Several such threats to blow up the Lucknow station have been issued in the past as well.