more-in Ramanathapuram A bomb threat to the century old Pamban rail bridge turned out to be a hoax on Saturday. The Bomb Detection and Disposal (BDP) squad with Railway Protection Force (RPF) and local police thoroughly combed the 2.06-km-long bridge from Mandapam point to Pamban point, police said. “We have completely checked the bridge and the threat turned out to be hoax,” Mr M Magesh, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Rameswaram said. On being alerted about the bomb threat, BDP squad posted for security at the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram rushed to the spot and checked the bridge with the help of bomb detectors, he said. They also checked the 2.345 km long Annai Indira Gandhi Bridge, which connected the island with mainland by road, he said. Railway authorities, however, stopped train services on the bridge for want of safety clearance. The Tiruchi – Rameswaram passenger train (Train no. 56892), proceeding towards Rameswaram was held up at Mandapam Railway Station after it reached the station around noon, officials said. The train was allowed to cross the bridge around 2 15 p.m. after a delay of more than two hours after the authorities gave the clearance, they said. Minutes after the police control room in Chennai received the threat call, police traced the caller to a 12-year-old boy, son of Sivaparakasam, a textile mill owner at Pallipalayam in Namakkal district. The local police visited the house and found the boy mentally unstable. The police did not register any case. Threat in Madurai Apollo Speciality Hospitals on Lake View Road in K.K. Nagar in Madurai received a bomb threat on Saturday evening, which later turned out to be a hoax. Following a phone call received at the hospital from an unidentified person, the hospital authorities alerted Madurai city police. Police said that a team from the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad of the city police thoroughly searched the area for more than an hour and found that the threat was a hoax.

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