Bomb rumour creates panic at Renigunta airport

Tirupati: Little did Mettapalli Jeevarathnam Reddy realize when he set out to Renigunta airport to meet his 'beloved' leader Y S Vijayamma in a black Indica car that it would send airport officials into a tizzy on Friday. Rumours flew thick and fast that the car parked by Reddy was loaded with bombs and that it could explode at any moment.
The two-hour high drama came to a tame end only after an equally nervous bomb squad officials did a complete check-up of the car parked on the airport premises and called the bluff of some local media channels which 'bombarded' the false news.
It all began when Reddy, a YSR Congress Party activist of Pachhikapallam village in Vedurukuppa mandal, came to the airport in his car (bearing registration number AP 035 9666) and parked it at the airport portico. After receiving Vijayamma who arrived in a Spice Jet flight around 10.30 am, he went away along with other activists to attend a marriage in PNR Hotel.
Meanwhile, police and airport officials were making arrangements to receive Tirupati MLA Chiranjeevi and other important VIPs when they noticed the locked car parked in a haphazard manner. They got jittery and started making frantic calls to find out the owner of the car. Word spread soon that the car could contain bombs and that it could be the handiwork of some extremist elements to blow up the car when the VIPs troop out of the airport.
25/02/12 Times of India

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Categories: airports Feb 2012