Ahmedabad: On the eve of Lok Sabha elections in Ahmedabad, as many as 16 schools here received an email on Monday threatening bomb blasts, though a police statement said this was a hoax, as searches failed to unearth anything suspicious.

Eleven of these schools have been designated as polling booths for Lok Sabha voting on Tuesday, informed Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Sharad Singhal.

The 16 schools comprise 12 in the city and four on the outskirts, Singhal said. “The content of the email sent to these schools is similar to that sent to schools in Delhi recently. The email was sent using a Russian domain ‘mail.Ru’. Nothing suspicious was found during the search operation carried out in all these schools.

This was clearly a hoax call,” Singhal told reporters.

After being alerted, police as well as bomb detection and disposal squad, dog squad and Crime Branch teams reached these schools and conducted a thorough search, a statement by Ahmedabad City Crime Branch said.

“No explosives were found during the search operation. Our teams are patrolling these areas and technical surveillance has also been initiated about the sender of the email. We appeal to people not to panic and to stay away from rumours. This threat was a hoax,” the statement said. Ignore this email (sent to schools) and exercise your voting rights tomorrow without any fear, it asked citizens.