Hundreds of schools across Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ireland were targeted in a coordinated wave of bomb threats sent via email.
Italy:
Over 300 Italian schools—primarily centered in Rome as well as other major cities—were forced to evacuate after receiving nearly identical emails claiming explosive devices had been left on their premises.
UK and Ireland:
Educational facilities in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and across Ireland also received the threatening messages.
However, unlike in Italy where many schools proactively evacuated, local authorities and police forces in Ireland and parts of the UK assessed the threats as not credible and did not mandate widespread evacuations.
Scotland’s education secretary Mairi McAllan said there was no risk to the public and specialist cyber-crime officers were working to identify the source of the messages. In Northern Ireland education officials told schools to remain open unless otherwise advised by police.
It is unclear whether the incidents are connected.
“As a parent and as a constituency MSP I understand just how concerning this will be for parents, for pupils, for carers and for school staff,” McAllan said.
Scottish police had earlier said that the warnings were “immediately assessed” as hoaxes.
However, some local authorities confirmed that some schools had been evacuated.
“Our advice is that there is no requirement to evacuate schools or keep children away from education based solely on the content of the emails,” Police Scotland said.
Threats Against Giorgia Meloni:
The threatening emails reportedly referenced and targeted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni said there was no “concrete danger” and called a government meeting for later in the day.
“At present, based on the checks carried out, no element has emerged that would suggest there is a concrete danger,” she said on Facebook.
“The reports instead appear to be linked to a strategy aimed at generating alarm and concern, which is currently the subject of all the necessary in-depth investigations,” Meloni said.
Meloni condemned the disruption, stating that the government was monitoring the situation closely and that the alerts posed no actual danger, serving instead to generate public alarm.
Nature of the Threats:
The emails began; “We have come to annihilate you. We will carry out genocide against the Italians.” They claimed a “powerful explosive device” with a “remote trigger” had been placed in each building.
“We have placed a bomb in the engine of your prime minister’s car,” the emails continued. They were signed “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan”.
Bomb threats sent to media outlets in Ireland and Bulgaria in the past week were signed with the same name. Similar hoax threats were also reported at schools in Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, prompting some evacuations.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said he would report to parliament on the incident and on wider security issues.
“It is part of a strategy that is now clear, which is to sow terror or to create concern. Any one of us could, with the means and tools that exist, send an email to a school, a nursery or an airline saying there is a bomb,” he said.
Law enforcement and national security sources confirmed the alerts were hoaxes. The text in some of the messages used inflammatory language and fictitious signatures (such as “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan”).
Broader Context:
Security officials are viewing these school hoaxes as part of a wider, concerning pattern of hybrid warfare, cyberattacks, and disruptions targeting European infrastructure (including recent bomb hoaxes affecting flights, media organizations, and supermarkets).
While some European officials suspect foreign state actors like Russia or Iran of orchestrating campaigns to sow chaos in nations supporting Ukraine, investigations into the precise origin and culprits remain ongoing.
