Chennai, Nov 11 : A bomb threat issued to actor Ajith Kumar's residence has now been declared a hoax.

Sources close to the actor said that police teams swung into action as soon as they received information and arrived at the actor's residence in Thiruvanmaiyur to neutralise the threat on Tuesday afternoon.

The police units, accompanied by sniffer dogs, conducted a thorough search of the residence of the actor before declaring the threat a hoax.

The bomb threat, sources say, was received at the DGP's office via mail and that threats had also been issued to the residences of other film celebrities such as Ramya Krishnan and S Ve Shekhar. Sources informed that similar searches were conducted by the police at all the places to which threats were issued before declaring the threat a hoax.

Although the threats have been declared hoaxes, the Tamil Nadu police is leaving no stone unturned to find out those behind such threats as off late, there has been a considerable increase in such threats.

It may be recalled that only on October 21, actress Sakshi Agarwal had thanked the thanked the Tamil Nadu Police for swiftly responding to a similar bomb threat that was issued to her house and office.

Taking to her X timeline, the actress had said, "Thank you @tnpoliceoffl #tndgp for your due diligence and immediate response to the Bomb Threat to my house and office! To my fans, we are safe and the bomb threat is being investigated!"

Bomb threats which turn out to be hoaxes have been on the rise in recent times. Prior to the threat received by Sakshi Agarwal, popular actors Trisha, Nayanthara and Vijay had received bomb threats. All of these threats proved to be a hoax. Sources added that prominent dignitaries such as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and opposition leader Edappadi K Palanisamy had also received similar threats earlier and that those threats too were found to be a hoax.

/IANS