By IANS,
Lucknow : Security around a cinema hall in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, was beefed up Saturday following a threat to blow it up, police said.
The manager of the Nishat cinema hall in the city’s Abu Lane received a phone call Saturday morning saying that the cinema hall would be blown up by the evening, Deputy Superintendent of Police Atul Srivastava told IANS on phone.
The manager immediately informed the police, which got the cinema hall evacuated just before a show was about to start at 12.30 p.m.
Police and bomb squad officials did not find any explosive.
Police are yet to trace the caller, who introduced himself as Rahul Verma, a resident of Ghaziabad, and claimed that two men, Wasim and Umar, would carry out the explosion by evening.
Officials of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), special operation group (SOG) and intelligence department have been pressed into service, he added.
Meerut is some 400 km from Lucknow.