A hoax call by an anonymous person of a bomb inside the Yeshwantpur-Bikaner train created panic among passengers in Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts on Sunday evening.
According to Railway sources, they received a call from the anonymous person who claimed that there was a bomb inside the train.
Following this, the Railway Police conveyed the matter to the Bagalkot and Vijayapura police who swung into action to detect the bomb.
First, the train was stopped in Bagalkot for conducting search operations with the help of sniffer dogs.
The operation started at around 6.30 p.m. at Bagalkot Railway Station, where a 30 member-squad conducted the search.
The squad, along with sniffer dogs, conducted a search of all the 20 bogies of the train to detect the bomb.
The two dogs searched every corner and also bags of passengers. The presence of the policemen and the dogs created anxiety among the passengers.
Meanwhile, the entire process took over an hour which only delayed the train. The squad, however, declared that it did not find any bomb.
Later, similar operations were conducted in Vijayapura also when the train reached the railway station here.
The police, who wanted a clear confirmation, conducted the search operation in Vijayapura also at around 9 p.m. The operation lasted nearly an hour which further delayed the train.
Meanwhile, many passengers were reportedly irked, while some also panicked. Others were even crying out of fear that there may be an untoward incident.
However, the train resumed its journey after clearance from the bomb squad.