Kolkata, 26 May (H.S.): Panic gripped the West Bengal Health Department’s headquarters—Swasthya Bhawan—in Salt Lake on Monday after officials received an email threatening to blow up the building. The message claimed that explosives had been planted inside the premises and that a detonation was imminent, triggering alarm among staff and officials.

Upon receiving the threat, authorities immediately alerted Bidhannagar Police. A police team rushed to the site and initiated a thorough search of the premises. Although no suspicious items were found during the initial sweep, security personnel are continuing the inspection with utmost caution.

According to police sources, an investigation is underway to trace the origin of the email and identify the sender. Officials have confirmed that the situation is being closely monitored, and additional security forces may be deployed if necessary.

This is not the first such incident in the city. Just last month, the Indian Museum in central Kolkata received a similar bomb threat via email. That alert led to the evacuation of the museum and a search operation by the New Market police station and the bomb squad. No explosives were found in that case either.

A few days after the museum threat, four schools in Kolkata received bomb threats through email, claiming that the school buildings would be blown up. These too were later declared hoaxes after thorough police investigations.

Over the past year, Kolkata has witnessed a spate of such email threats, most of which turned out to be false alarms. Nevertheless, the police have been treating each threat with full seriousness to avoid any security lapses.

As of now, security has been intensified at Swasthya Bhawan, and authorities are working to get to the bottom of the matter.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh