Three suspicious-looking bags put Delhi on high alert

Three suspicion-evoking bags were seized New Delhi on Monday, one each from outside an army hospital and two markets, causing a scare till the time bomb disposal squads declared them harmless, said police.

The three bags were spotted in succession over a span of three hours, starting with the one found near the army's Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment around 2.50 pm, police said.

Additional Commissioner of Police AK Ojha said another abandoned bag was found in the cantonment's Gopinath Bazar around 3 pm, but it was found to be carrying papers.

The third suspicion-evoking bag was found on a motorcycle in south Delhi's Greater Kailash-I area around 5.30 pm, police said.

The bag outside the hospital caused a flutter after a car driver called up the Police Control Room to inform it that two men on a motorbike threw a bag into his vehicle and fled, police said.

"It came to light that two people riding a two-wheeler stopped the car outside the hospital and told a person in the car that they had an expensive laptop and they were in need of money. When the person sitting in the car refused to show interest in buying the laptop, they just threw the bag into the car through the window and fled," the officer added.

The man in the car was shocked and he threw the bag on the road outside the hospital and telephoned police, he said.

Officials of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, army and bomb disposal squads reached the spot and cordoned off the area before scanning the bag, police said.

"The bomb disposal team found that the blue bag was carrying two broken bricks, a soap and an empty purse," said a police officer. The bag was declared harmless around 6.30 pm.

Soon after information was received about the bag outside hospital, another call was made to the Police Control Room around 3 pm about a suspicion-evoking bag in the Delhi cantonment's Gopinath Bazar. The bomb disposal squad found papers in it, police said.

The third bag which caused some suspicion and scare was found on a motorcycle in south Delhi's Greater Kailash-I area around 5.30 pm.

"A police team cordoned off the area and after a check declared that nothing suspicious was present in the bag," another officer said.

The officer said the motorcycle and bag owner also reached the spot after the bag was searched.

The incident came a day after Delhi was put on high alert in the wake of Thursday's twin blasts in Andhra Pradesh's capital Hyderabad that killed 16 people and left over 115 injured.

Security in the city has been beefed up, police said.