Hoax Bomb Threats Empty Hundreds of Italian Schools as Alerts Spread Across Europe

More than 300 schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after around 6,300 received emailed bomb warnings, in the latest wave of hoax alerts to unsettle daily life across Europe.

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara described the messages as presumed hoaxes, and no explosive device was reported found. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said pupils were safe and that police and other public bodies were monitoring the situation. Similar emails reached schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where officials classed them as hoaxes and said classes were not disrupted.

Classrooms emptied from Rome to Palermo

Schools closed swiftly once the warnings arrived, and many parents dropped what they were doing to collect their children. Lessons were suspended and precautionary evacuations were ordered in Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo and Bologna, according to La Repubblica’s live coverage of the evacuations, with more than a dozen schools evacuated in Trieste alone.

“My daughter Dafne started crying because the kids did not understand what was happening, and she was still shaken when I picked her up,” said Nensi Bego, a parent at the Mazzini middle school in Rome. “This is so annoying. It’s obvious it’s just a hoax that disrupts lessons and disrupts everyone’s day.”

Valditara first put the number of evacuated schools at at least 300, and later raised it to 312. Meloni called a meeting of senior ministers and intelligence officials at Palazzo Chigi, the government’s seat in Rome, for 4pm. One school in Rome told parents through a messaging app: “All students have been taken to a safe area and remain under the supervision of teaching staff.”

A threat to the prime minister, and a strange signature

A copy of the message seen by Reuters also included a threat to target Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The email was signed “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan,” according to Reuters reporting. No source has verified that name or any such group.

A national security source told Reuters that the school email addresses were public, adding: “The (school) emails are public. (Sending the bomb alert messages) was as easy as drinking a glass of water.” The same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent on Friday to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria.

Alerts reach Britain and Ireland

Police Scotland said at least 470 schools in Scotland received the email, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland said more than 300 schools there reported the same message. In the Republic of Ireland, schools also received a similar threat from abroad, but it was classed as a hoax and did not disrupt classes.

Part of a wider pattern of disruption

The school alerts are the latest in a series of threats and cyberattacks around Europe against supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and broadcasters. They follow hoax bomb threats that disrupted European flights and targeted newsrooms, and come after Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s data was leaked on the dark web by pro-Russian hackers.

Some European officials suspect Russia may be behind a campaign of disruption against European nations supporting Ukraine after Moscow’s invasion. Russia denies that and accuses the West of a smear campaign. Iran is another suspect: France summoned Iran’s ambassador on Tuesday after accusing Tehran of a cyberattack that disabled refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets last week. Iran rejected those accusations as “baseless and hostile”.

The episode also echoes recent security scares in Britain, where US tankers were evacuated from RAF Mildenhall after an Iranian threat.

Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said Wednesday’s threats were part of a clear strategy “to spread fear and create anxiety”, adding: “It is not always the work of foreign countries or hostile entities. There are also attention-seekers and lunatics who, at a time like this, cannot wait to unleash terror in a city or a region.”

Antonello Giannelli, head of the Italian School Principals Association, said: “Even though today’s threats are clearly hoaxes, we cannot underestimate the consequences of incidents that alarm entire school communities and disrupt the normal conduct of educational activities.”

What happens next

Police continued to monitor the situation, and officials stressed that no danger had been found. No culprit has been named, and no verified link has been established between the school alerts and the earlier threats to newsrooms.

How many Italian schools received the bomb warnings?

Around 6,300 schools received the emailed warnings, according to Reuters. At least 300 were evacuated, a figure Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara later raised to 312.

Were the threats real?

Authorities described them as presumed hoaxes. No explosive device was reported found, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said pupils were safe.

Did the alerts reach other countries?

Yes. Schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland received similar emails. Officials there classed them as hoaxes, and classes were not disrupted.