Update: The call was a hoax.
Bengaluru’s Embassy Tech Village, situated on Outer Ring Road received a bomb threat call on Friday, after which employees of organisations in the park were asked to assemble at a safe point. The threat call was received at the Cisco office located inside the tech park.
Thousands of employees working at organisations such as Sony, Cisco and were evacuated at around 2 pm. The Sony office has been sealed. Bomb squads and sniffer dogs are at the spot.
DCP Whitefield Abdul Ahad confirmed that a threat call was received, and was likely a prank. As many as 7,000 employees were evacuated, the police added.
“Yes, a threat call which we believe is mostly a prank call received around 1 pm. Someone speaking in Hindi said there would be a bomb blast in 10 minutes. The call was received at the Cisco office at Embassy Tech Village, which is next to Cessna Business Park in Marathahalli. We have evacuated people and the bomb squad is at the spot, which is a standard operating procedure. The call came as a VoIP call. We have contacted Cyber Crime to trace the call,” the DCP said.
Located at the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, Embassy Tech Village hosts a group of multinational companies like Cisco, Altimerk, Moody’s Analytics, Sony and Wells Fargo.
A lot of employees have tweeted that they have been asked to assemble at safe points outside the building.
All offices in Embassy tech village has been asked to be evacuated pic.twitter.com/TRWGFxroUH
— यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः॥ (@saivenkat1106) June 8, 2018
Seems there has been a "bomb" hoax call at Embassy Tech Village. 1000's of employees have been evacuated and the buildings have been sealed.
— comrade (@comrade82537013) June 8, 2018
@ArnabOffice bomb threat in embassy tech village Bangalore people are being evacuated pic.twitter.com/WyclNSujr3
— Rakeshkumarsaini (@rakesh275358) June 8, 2018
However, some employees alleged that while the police had asked the tech park to not let people to enter the buildings for two hours, some organisations were forcing their employees to get back to their desks. "We did not get an email communication about the threat. And after we gathered at the safe assembly space, we were informed by Embassy Tech Park that no one should enter for two hours. However, our organisation started calling us on phone, and asked us to get back to work. The security at individual buildings are already letting people back inside," a person who works at an IT company in the tech park said.
The tech park issued a statement regarding the same:
“A bomb threat call was made to an employee of Cisco, operating out of Embassy TechVillage at midday today. As a precaution and in accordance with our standard operating procedures, the relevant buildings were evacuated and the Police and Fire authorities attended the scene. All office buildings and basements within the business park were checked by the police and declared clear. Employees have now been permitted to move back into the buildings. We continue to take all measures to ensure the safety of our corporate occupiers in accordance with our Incident Management protocols and, in accordance with those Standard Operating Procedures, will be carrying out a full incident and response review.”