Tweet, tweet, there's a bomb in the mall

Alert and the first pics of exodus were on Twitter, revolutionising how we access information

Alert and the first pics of exodus were on Twitter, revolutionising how we access information

It was a tweet that first sounded the alert of a bomb scare at Vashi yesterday.

It was also on the social networking site Twitter that the first pictures of the bomb scare at Vashi appeared.
u00a0
Even before media personnel hit the scene, pictures of the evacuated Raghuleela mall and adjacent building were uploaded on Twitter, a site that is slowly gaining popularity among working professionals in the city.
u00a0
Tweeters also put up messages on when the mall opened to the public and the various rumours that were floating around about the scare.

BOMB HOAX: People were evacuated from Vishwaroop Park, adjacent to Raghuleela Mall, near Vashi station, yesterday.

One tweet read: "There were at least 35 people leaning against my car during the Vashi bomb scare.

Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad if they scratch it."

The man was working in the building opposite Raghuleela mall and was following the incident until the mall reopened to the public.

Another tweeter said, "I feel bad for the kids who lost out on their early bird Harry Potter movie screening at Fame Cinema in the mall."

What happened?

At 9.50 am, a call centre executive at FirstSource Solutions on the 12th floor at Vishwaroop IT Park received a call from an Upendra Singh.

The caller stated that he was from Pakistan and that bombs had been placed in the building that would detonate in the next 20 minutes.

Vishwaroop Park is adjacent to Raghuleela Mall, close to Vashi station. After the Bomb Disposal Squad, all offices and staff at the mall were asked to evacuate immediately.

The area was then cordoned off, but no explosive devices were found. The call has been traced to Andhra Pradesh.

It's raining!

Only recently, the downpour in the city made it to the top 10 Trending Topics on Twitter.

"There was far better information available to people on Twitter the route to take to avoid water logged roads, etc," said Carl D'souza, a tweeter who was following the posts on the Vashi scare.

Au00a0Day of Hoaxes

In another incident, passengers of BEST Bus no 130 were evacuated at CST when a packet was found under a seat.

The packet turned out to be a small machine. Security was also beefed up on Western Railway and Dadar station following an anonymous call to railway controls. The call was traced to the UK.

Citizen Journalist andu00a0a Tweeter

IndiaGames CEO Vishal Gondal was among the first to upload pictures about the bomb scare on Twitter.

"Our offices are in the IT park that's adjacent to the mall and when I entered the premises at 11 am, there were people running out of the exits.

I immediately tweeted about it as I thought it was the best way to send out information to as many people as I could at the same time.

"It's my responsibility as a citizen, and a tweet stays a lot longer on the platform than a flashing message on a channel," said Gondal who's previously seen how tweet alerts on the Mumbai rains and the Iran elections were of help to tweeters. Gondal has been on Twitter for a year.

Follow MidDay on