Schools across Italy were evacuated Wednesday after receiving identical bomb threats by email. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said about 300 schools had been affected and that the number was expected to rise.
Speaking to the La7 television channel, Valditara said the alerts were presumed to be hoaxes. He argued that the sheer number of schools targeted showed how little credibility the threat had. He urged the public not to panic, saying the email's content made a real danger very unlikely and that the incident appeared to be a cyberattack. He added that it formed part of a wider strategy that had previously targeted flights and supermarkets, and that the intelligence services should be involved in the response.
Evacuations were reported from Rome and Milan to Naples, Potenza and the province of Udine. One Rome school told parents that all students had been moved to a safe area and remained under teachers' supervision.
The email was signed "Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan," according to a copy seen by Reuters. The same purported author claimed responsibility for emailed bomb threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday. Italian police have opened an investigation, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a meeting at Palazzo Chigi on Wednesday afternoon with the heads of the national cybersecurity agency.
Also on Wednesday, police in Northern Ireland opened inquiries after hundreds of schools there received threatening emails. Education officials in Northern Ireland said the message resembled hoax threats sent to up to 300 schools in the region last month.
The incidents come amid growing concern in Europe over so-called hybrid warfare threats, which have targeted supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and television broadcasters.
