An anonymous caller, who used a public call office, to contact the Pune police, threatened to blow up the residence of Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare "within a couple of days", a top official confirmed today.

The caller who spoke a few lines in Marathi on November 24 evening cut the line after giving the threat, Rajendra Sonavane, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), told PTI.

The call was later traced to a public booth in Sahkar Nagar area of the city, he added. Asked whether it was being seen as a 'hoax', Sonavane said police were taking all such threats seriously in the present scenario and the Mumbai ATS had been informed duly about the threat call. However, the police control room, when contacted last night, had denied receiving any such threat to Karkare.