‘Big balloon’ near Indira Gandhi International Airport triggers security alert

Security agencies went into a tizzy on Wednesday afternoon after the authorities received a call about spotting of an object like a “big balloon” near the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the city.

The police said that immediately afterwards an alert was sounded with a team of the Delhi police swinging into action and informing other security agencies about the call, which was received at the call centre of the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).

Deputy commissioner of police, IGI Airport, D.K. Gupta said that all security agencies were informed about the information but the police had not spotted the object. “The airport was put on high alert after the DIAL call centre received a call about a big balloon spotted near the airport this afternoon,” Mr Gupta said, adding, “The call was received around 5 pm and the caller said that the big balloon was heading from the airport to Aya Nagar following which an alert was issued at the IGI and all security agencies were informed about it.”

A senior Delhi police official said that though the police force had not been able to track the caller as yet, it is suspected that the call was a hoax. “We have checked it with all forces that are stationed at the Delhi airport, but no one has spotted any such object,” said the senior police officer, adding, “However, all precautionary measures are in place and the alert will be in place until concrete conclusions are reached upon.” “We are in constant touch with the Gurgaon police as well for any updates on the matter.” The police added that the caller mentioned that the colour of the balloon was white which was about 1 metre in diameter, flying between 1-1.5 km high. In a similar incident, on October 27, a drone was seen flying near the runway of IGI Airport of which no clue could be found.