KATHMANDU: A bomb hoax created panic at Nawa Jeevan Church in Kupandole and adjoining areas prompting security officials to evacuate the facilities for two hours today.

According to security officials, a bomb disposal squad of Nepal Police with sniffer dogs arrived at the scene with heavy disposal equipment acting on a warning given by a man identifying himself as Ratna Bahadur Bogati at 10:30 am that he had planted a bomb there.

The elite disposal squad took more than an hour to carry out search operation in the church. Later, it turned out to be a hoax. "Contrary to the warning, we found no explosives in the church," informed a police official, adding that they had traced the caller's telephone number. Police have intensified search to track the hoaxer.

Metropolitan Police Range Lalitpur has held him for further investigation into the case. Bogati, at his 50s, was nabbed from his house at Balkhu in the evening by Kalimati police. "We arrested him in a drunken state. He told the investigating officials that his name was Ram Bahadur Thapa and that his wife worked in the church," said an official preferring anonymity.

The police department has taken the incident very seriously, regardless of a hoax designed to create panic, in the wake of bombing at Assumption Church in Lalitpur which killed two parishioners and wounded a dozen others on May 23. The blast was condemned by the religious communities worldwide. Nepal Defence Army, a small armed group wishing to restore Hinduism, had claimed the responsibility. SP Kedar Man Singh Bhandari said the motive of the hoax was not immediately known.