Bomb scare turns out to be a false alarm

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 8.A bomb scare, which later turned out to be a false alarm, gave the police bomb disposal squad some tense moments and caused high drama at the Thampanoor Central Railway station here on Monday evening.

The events unfolded when porters at the cargo unloading bay on platform number one noticed a beep sound from a wooden crate as it was being unloaded from the luggage wagon of the Kerala Express (New Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram), which pulled into the station at around 3.45 p.m.

The porters, Balakrishnan, Ajith and Sadasivan, brought the matter to the notice of the Railway Protection Force (RPF). Immediately, RPF men arrived at the cargo bay with a sniffer dog trained to detect explosives. When the black labrador barked at the wooden crate, the RPF men and porters removed it to a walled compound near the cargo unloading bay of platform number one.

At the instance of officials, porters started the standard procedure of stacking sand-filled gunny bags around the suspect wooden crate. Immediately, a large police force headed by the City Police Commissioner, Mr. Rajan Singh, rushed to the spot.

Traffic along the Overbridge-Thampanoor road was halted. The platform was cleared of all civilians. All incoming and out-bound trains were rescheduled to other platforms and the first platform was made sterile.

The bomb detection and disposal squad under the State police Special Branch was deployed at platform number one. Explosive experts used sophisticated handheld x-ray units to probe the innards of the wooden crate. The initial visuals confirmed the existence of electronic circuitry inside.

Even as the bomb squad was examining the crate, the city police traced the person for whom the parcel was meant for. It turned out that the parcel was ordered from New Delhi by Mr. Dinesh Chandra, who runs a surgical instrument store at Sasthamangalam. Police traced the mobile telephone number of Mr. Chandra and tracked him down at Kallara. Over telephone, he reportedly told the police that the wooden crate contained an oxygen failure protection device. The police was told the device contained a battery-operated unit which could get switched on accidentally, if not handled properly.

By this time, the bomb squad had reached the conclusion that the device inside the crate was not lethal. They started opening the crate nimbly. Soon the surgical device was extricated and put on display for the benefit of mediapersons, who had gathered at the police station in large numbers. The drama which started at around 5.30 p.m. drew to a close by 8.30 p.m.

The police bomb disposal squad taking out the surgical device from a wooden crate, that caused much panic at the Thampanoor Railway Station, in the city on Monday.

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