Bomb scare on Kolkata's Howrah bridge

Kolkata: A thorough search was conducted on the Howrah Bridge after an anonymous call stated today that explosives were planted on the iconic iron edifice. The call, however, soon proved to be a hoax, officials said.[caption id=“attachment_91941” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Howrah Bridge in Kolkata. Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reutters”]  [/caption] Howrah Bridge, now called Rabindra Setu, is the link between Howrah station and Kolkata metropolis. Built during the British period, it is a cantilever bridge on the Hoogly river. More than 80,000 vehicles and nearly ten lakh pedestrians use the bridge daily, officials said. The police said the control room at Bidhannagar in North 24-Parganas district received a call this morning saying that explosives were planted on the bridge. The bomb squad was immediately alerted which sent two groups with sniffer dogs to the bridge. The two groups went on an inch-by-inch search of the bridge for several hours from both Howrah and Kolkata ends. They also searched the hawkers’ stalls and both ends. Nothing, however, was found, the police said. PTI