A middle-aged man who was getting late and feared he would miss a New Delhi-bound flight on Wednesday called up the police helpline number of 100 and reported a bomb at the airport.

A Delhi police team nabbed Mohammad Chand of Samastipur on Wednesday night and apprised their Patna counterparts around 1am. Formalities are on to bring him back to Patna.

"The police's Dial 100 system is state-of-the-art. Those trying to do mischief on it should know that they could land in trouble. Around 4pm, the accused warned of a bomb in the airport on the Patna police 100. The police immediately acted and alerted the airport authorities. A thorough search was conducted on the airport premises but no bomb was found," said Patna senior superintendent of police Jitender Rana.

He added: "The police then traced the number from which the call originated. Around 11pm, the location of the caller was in Delhi. We conducted scientific investigations with the Delhi police and around 1am, the man was arrested. He is lodged at Ranjit Nagar police station in central Delhi. A police team has been sent from here to grill the accused."

The police said the accused had to catch a Patna-Delhi flight at 5.30pm but was running late. "He was desperate to catch it. So, he made the hoax call in order to delay the flight. However, the man missed the flight and then took another flight later in the evening.