Teen boy arrested for fake bomb threat on Indian plane

The boy from Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand was apprehended on Sunday for sending an email to the Delhi International Airport, or Indira Gandhi International Airport, falsely claiming that a bomb had been planted in a Dubai-bound flight that was scheduled on June 18, The Times of India reported.

Police said after the email was sent on June 17, authorities and police placed the entire airport on high alert, and a full emergency was declared.

"The guidelines and protocol laid in the standard operative procedure were properly followed to ensure the safety and security of the passengers. After proper verification, the threat email was found to be a hoax," deputy commissioner of police at the airport, Usha Rangnani, told Hindustan Times.

The police reported that the boy confessed to creating an email account to send the bomb threat email and then deleted the account afterward.

The mobile phone he used for this act, which his parents had recently bought to assist with his studies, has been confiscated.

He admitted to making the hoax "just for fun" after being inspired by a recent news story about another teenager who had made a fake bomb threat call a few days earlier.

The boy has now been handed over to his parents.