Security scare at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport872 views | 25 Recommendations | 7 comments
On the heels of the terror attacks in Mumbai, reports of shots fired at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India, have resulted in a series of confused news stories from various mainstream media outlets.
Early reports which stated that 6 gunmen had been shot by police were based on a small BBC release.
Six gunmen have been shot by Indian security forces at Delhi's main international airport according to airport officials, the BBC reports.
India had declared a security alert at three major airports, including Delhi and the IT hub Bangalore, and added extra checks to vehicles and luggage after warnings from intelligence agencies, officials said on Thursday.
Local television showed armed police guarding entrances to Delhi's international airport. Police cordons had also been set up outside the airport in the southern industrial city of Chennai.
The heightened security comes days after the militant attacks in Mumbai that killed 171 people.
An unconfirmed BBC report started the frenzy. Now that confirmation has been sought the real story appears much less sinister.
The police force in charge of security at Delhi's main airport has denied reports that people have been shot and injured there.
Police are investigating "two sharp sounds that were heard at the airport", the force told the BBC's Delhi bureau.
Track real-time comments on this evolving news story: India Scan
December 4, 2008 at 12:48 pm by Tina Kells, 872 views, 7 comments
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
harringtola
Town-send, Massachusetts, United States
Gh0s7
Boone, North Carolina, United States
Sign in to NowPublic
Truemors
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 13:04 on December 4th, 2008
This is a good post! There were warning released last night that India was watching for an airborne attack. They referred to it being similar to 9/11 in the United States.
at 15:43 on December 4th, 2008
I blogged about this here:
Delhi: Twitter Report of Six Gunmen Being Shot Dead turns into 'Security Scare at Delhi's Airport'
at 15:48 on December 4th, 2008
It's very interesting how quickly what sounded like an extremely serious incident turned into an apparently minor incident. I'd like to know what actually happened, and whether there is any suggestion of security forces downplaying the incident in order to quell panic.
at 20:59 on December 4th, 2008
The final official story is that there were some sounds like gunfire and security agencies swing into action and checked every nook and corner of the Delhi Airport and found nothing.
Apparantly one Toyota Qualis vehicle sped away fron a road block set up after the incident and got away.
Police are saying that the two incidents were not connected. I am wondering was it a dry run to check the preparidness of the police or just a no issue as the police is saying, we dont know for sure.
Official Line: Nothing found!
at 21:15 on December 4th, 2008
Thanks for the update Ravi.
at 21:01 on December 4th, 2008
Indian police said there was no evidence of shootings at New Delhi's international airport, following reports of gunfire overnight, Agence France-Presse reported.
``Everything is normal,'' Udayan Bannerjee, head of the paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force, which is responsible for airport security, was quoted as saying in the AFP report.
Bannerjee said personnel had heard ``two sounds that appeared to them as gunshots'' and sounded the alarm, causing a lockdown at the airport that lasted about 40 minutes. ``There were no eyewitnesses to any gunshots and no rounds were recovered,'' he said, adding all airport operations were back to normal.
source: Bloomberg.com
at 22:50 on December 6th, 2008
Tina, it must a traumatic experience for the families of the victims who died in the Mumbai killimg? All South Africans from all races, send their condolensces to these families, Altohugh I hear that some South African Airways-: hostesses were captued and trapped in one of the hotels, they were released by police safe and unhurt.
I hope and wish this comes to an end and the pepertrators brought to book. This is rather unsafe and unprecedented.