Lucknow: Dramatic scenes unfolded at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Lucknow after 30 passengers, who were detained on suspicion of smuggling gold, escaped from the custody of airport officials after one of them pretended to be sick and created chaos.

Custom and police officials have started searching for the accused, they said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Singh said that officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Customs Department had on Monday stopped at the airport 36 passengers who had come from Sharjah.

When the officials frisked the passengers, cigarettes worth over Rs 3 crore and cash worth Rs 23.90 lakh were seized from some of them, Singh said.

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

On Tuesday, when the 30 remaining passengers were being questioned, one of them pretended to be ill and created chaos. Taking advantage of this, all of them fled, the officer said.

A case has been registered under relevant sections on the complaint in the matter and efforts are being made to arrest the accused, he added. 

(With PTI inputs)