New Delhi, July 16 - A call to the police Thursday claiming a bomb had been placed in the Ashok Hotel here turned out to be a hoax, police said.

An unidentified man called the Chanakyapuri police station around 9:45 a.m., saying that there was a bomb in the five-star hotel, a police officer said.

Bomb disposal teams accompanied by sniffer dogs were sent to the hotel. However, no bomb was found.

'It would be difficult to trace the caller as he had directly called the police station. Had he had called Police Control Room, it would have been easy to catch him,' the officer said.