"Bombs are hidden in black bags": Hotels in Lucknow get bomb threats

Lucknow: At least 10 major hotels in the Uttar Pradesh capital received bomb threats via email on Sunday.

The email threatened that explosions would take place if a ransom demand of USD 55,000 (Rs 4,624,288) is not met.

"Bombs are hidden in black bags on the grounds of your hotel. I want USD 55,000, or I will detonate the explosives and blood will spill everywhere. Any attempt at defusing the bombs will detonate them," read the threat email, a copy of which is with PTI.

Brajesh Kumar, a manager of one of the hotels, told PTI Videos, "We received the threat mail in the morning. As a precaution we reported the matter to the local police station and a team has come to look into the matter."

"We already have systems to scan all the guests and their luggage. Even then, as a precaution we are helping the police to scan the hotel," he added.

Senior police officials could not be reached for a comment despite several attempts.

Authorities have been grappling with a number of hoax bomb threats targeting Indian airlines during the last fortnight.

In 14 days, more than 350 flights operated by Indian carriers have received hoax bomb threats, most of them through social media.

A number of threatening emails were received by schools, malls and other establishments in Delhi-NCR in recent months and they turned out to be hoax.