Mumbai: A state of high alert prevailed across Mumbai and Maharashtra for the second day as, despite intense search operations, security agencies had not been able to catch the armed suspects seen by witnesses on Thursday morning in the coastal town of Uran, near Mumbai.

“Area-to-area search operations are underway and there is police ‘bandobast’ (security) across Uran where several agencies, including National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, Quick Response Team of the Mumbai Police, and Force One of Maharashtra’s specialised police are all present,” a police representative at the Uran police station told Gulf News.

The officer also said all schools, colleges, government offices and public buildings remained shut. Uran has ordered a lockdown “with every one entering and exiting this town being monitored,” she said.

The Maharashtra home department confirmed that it was investigating the seizure of an abandoned boat on September 7 near Uran.

Late on Thursday night, the Navi Mumbai police released a sketch of two suspects and circulated among all the investigating agencies.

The sketches were based on the description provided by two school students from Uran who reported independently the incidents to their teachers.

A Standard 9 boy had seen an armed man in a Pathan suit carrying arms and a backpack, while a Standard 10 girl spotted 5-6 suspicious masked men dressed similarly and carrying arms and backpacks.

She had overheard them talking about “school” and “ONGC”.

The girl who studies in the Uran Education Society and Junior College reportedly told the police that she heard them say in Hindi and English that they will first blow up the school and then the ONGC plant, and that they should divide into two groups.

The news triggered off an alert among all security agencies and in Mumbai, too, a few schools shut down but most educational institutions asked their students to be alert.

The sighting comes four days after infiltrators attacked the Uri Army Camp in Kashmir where 18 Indian soldiers were killed.

Uran could be targeted because it is located close to the Oil and Natural Gas Company, Indian Navy’s ammunition depot and India’s largest container port, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. Across the harbour is the Mumbai Port Trust, the Western Naval Command headquarters and the naval harbour. And just opposite the bay of Uran is the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. A search is also being carried out in the small island of Elephanta Caves, a tourist site, situated between the coastline of Mumbai and JNPT.