Scare in skyscraper after bomb hoax

CHENNAI: A bomb threat call received at an engineering company housed in a high-rise building triggered panic and led to the evacuation of around 4,000 employees at Ambattur Industrial Estate on Friday.  After a six-hour long search, the bomb disposal squad declared the threat call as a hoax.According to sources, Bharatselvam, an employee of Pavo Power Engineering Pvt Ltd located on RR Info Park, attended a landline call at 8.34 am. The male caller told him that a bomb had been planted inside the building and that it would go off in the afternoon. Immediately, Bharatselvam alerted senior officials of his company, who then informed the police.  Senior police officials, including DCP Mahesh Kumar, ACP Nandakumar and Inspector Sivaramkumar, arrived at the spot around 9.30 am.Even as a bomb disposal squad got to work soon after, three companies located in the 16-storied building started evacuating their employees, totaling around 4,000. While six floors of RR Info Park were occupied by three companies, construction work was in progress in the remaining 10. Two of the floors were occupied by Tata Consultancy Services. As a statement from TCS read, “Another tenant in the building that houses the TCS training facility at Ambattur, Chennai, received a call threatening the safety of the facility on Friday morning. As the safety of our employees is paramount, we evacuated all the TCS trainees and faculty from the location in an orderly manner. The police and their specialist teams took control of the facility and are conducting investigations into the incident.”After a thorough search of the premises lasting till 3 pm, the bomb disposal squad declared the threat call as hoax. The Ambattur police, who registered a case, are trying to trace the caller.