Mumbai: Two telephone calls claiming that a bomb had been planted in Times of India office in South Mumbai turned out to be a hoax after a thorough search by police.

The first caller identified himself as sandalwood smuggler Veerappan while the second call was anonymous, chief security officer of the newspaper G P Varghese said.

Immediately, police and bomb disposal squad and sniffer dogs were summoned and after a two-hour search, no suspicious object was found, police said.

Varghese said that the first call was received at 7:30 hours (IST) and second two hours later.

"We called police and the sniffer dogs were pressed into service. The entire building was searched. However, no explosive device was found," he said.

Mumbai city witnessed two deadly explosions on August 25, in which 52 people were killed and over 100 injured.

PTI