A red alert was declared at the Chennai airport in the wee hours of Friday (August 9) morning after bomb threat warnings were received from the national capital.
New Delhi has reportedly warned the Chennai airport of a possible bomb threat after the control room of the Delhi airport police issued an alert. The call was regarding a woman passenger on board a flight to Saudi Arabia and that she is carrying an explosive substance, The Hindu reports.
After a quick meeting between the Central Industrial Security Force, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Airports Authority of India and other intelligence agencies, a little after midnight, the red alert was sounded and security intensified.
The red alert was sounded shortly after midnight and the beefed-up security also included frisking, random checks of vehicles in parking lots as well as enhanced checking of bags. Many flights were delayed due to this.
According to a report by The News Minute, the call to the New Delhi airport police control room was traced back to Salem district in Tamil Nadu but the identity of the caller is not known yet.
This call comes when the security was already heightened due to the Independence day next week on August 15.
Airport authorities in Chennai have asked travellers to arrive two hours early amid an increase in security.
