Chennai,  The Tamil Nadu Police on Wednesday morning found two 'pipe bombs' in a cement factory in Tirunelveli.

Tirunelveli, the southern part of the state, is tense after the detection by the police and the Bomb Detection and Disposable squad. The factory, located at Shankar Nagar supplies cement to Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The pipe bombs were discovered after the cement factory management received a telephone call that improvised explosives would go off at five places in the cement factory if the callers were not given a ransom of Rs 50 lakh.

After the company management informed the police about the threat calls, the Thaazhiyoothu police immediately reached the spot and conducted a thorough check with the help of Bomb Detection and Disposable Squad and found the two pipe bombs.

Police suspect this to be the handiwork of a few terminated employees of the cement factory. Following Covid-19 restrictions, the cement factory had to stop continuing the services of a few hundred contract employees. However, police sources said the department is conducting a thorough investigation from all angles.

Tirunelveli Superintendent of Police, Manivannan, who reached the spot in the night, told IANS, "Police are conducting an open investigation. We are not leaving out any angles and will soon bring the culprits to book."

The detection of pipe bombs, which are widely used by certain terror outfits, has not gone down well with the people of Tirunelveli as the cement factory has been supplying cement to Tamil Nadu as well as part of Kerala and is a source of income for many. Used gelatin sticks were recently detected from the forest land of Pathanapuram in Kollam district adjoining Tamil Nadu and the state police and intelligence were on the lookout of the origin of these sticks.

Central Intelligence agencies have already started an investigation as the ultra Tamil feeling has been fanned up in the state after the DMK government has come to power and the agencies are mainly focusing on the source of these pipe bombs.