Six passengers told officials they were carrying gold.

Lucknow:

Thirty people detained at Lucknow airport for allegedly smuggling gold into the country escaped after one of them pretended to be sick and created chaos, officials said.

Customs and police officials launched a search operation to arrest the accused, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Singh said officials from the Revenue Intelligence Bureau and Customs department intercepted 36 people arriving from Sharjah at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport on Monday. passenger.

Singh said cigarettes worth over Rs 3 crore and cash worth Rs 2.39 crore were seized from some of them when officials conducted searches on them.

Six passengers told officials they were carrying gold, he said.

On Tuesday, while the remaining 30 passengers were being questioned, one of them pretended to be sick and caused chaos. Taking advantage of the opportunity, they all ran away, the officer said.

A case has been registered based on relevant sections of the complaint regarding the matter and efforts are on to arrest the accused, he added.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)