Some 40 schools in the Indian capital of New Delhi received bomb threats via e-mail, officials confirmed on Monday. The sender wrote that they "planted multiple bombs" and demanded $30,000 (€28,400) to not go through with the plot.

The affected schools included some of the city's most prominent, including DPS RK Puram, GD Goenka, the British School, and the Mother's International.

Delhi police, bomb disposal squads, and the fire department were actively searching at each location, though no evidence of explosives had been found at any of the schools by Monday afternoon.

Delhi schools evacuated after emailed bomb threats 

The capital's Chief Minister Atishi Singh criticized the central government, writing on X: "After the daily incidents of ransom, murders, firing in Delhi, now threats of bombing of schools are being received. The law and order situation in Delhi has never been so bad before. The BJP-ruled central government has failed in its only task of providing security to the people of Delhi."

According to school officials, the threatening e-mail was sent en masse from a Gmail account on Sunday, when the schools were all closed.

It read, in part: "The bombs are small and hidden very well. It will not cause very much damage to the building, but many people will be injured when the bombs detonate."

The e-mail then said that "the group =E2=80=9CKNR=E2=80=9D is behind this attack."

There was no immediate evidence that the threat was genuine. There have been hundreds of cases of bomb threats sent into schools, airports and railway stations across India in the past that have turned out to be hoaxes.

es/rm (Reuters, ANI)