At least 40 schools received a bomb threat by e-mail in Delhi, India, on Monday demanding $30,000 (R537,165), ANI news agency said, while police officials conducted initial searches on school premises.
Schools, railway stations and airports this year have been subject to hundreds of bomb threats, which have later turned out to be hoaxes.
Airlines and airports in India received 999 hoax bomb threats from the start of the year until mid-November and 12 people had been arrested during the same period, government data shows.
Two schools got the threatening e-mail on Sunday night, which said multiple bombs were planted inside buildings and would be detonated if the sender was not paid $30,000, according to ANI.
Many other schools received the e-mails on Monday morning, prompting school authorities to call parents to take the pupils home for the day.
Parents were seen picking up their children from the gates of some schools as police checked school premises for suspicious items.
Police officials in Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
In May, more than 50 schools in Delhi and the adjoining suburb of Noida received similar bomb threat e-mails that turned out to be hoaxes.
Reuters
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