Wave of hoax bomb threats sent to schools in UK, Ireland and Italy

Hundreds of schools across Europe were evacuated on Wednesday after receiving bomb threats, police forces say, in what appeared to be the latest wave of efforts to intimidate populations. According to CNBC, Italy's education minister Giuseppe Valditara told Italian TV that the emailed threats were presumed to be hoaxes, and that the number of schools affected was expected to rise.

NBC News reported that schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after around 6,300 of them received bomb warnings, the latest in a series of threats and cyberattacks around Europe against supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and broadcasters. In Italy, schools closed swiftly after the warnings, prompting many parents to drop what they were doing to collect children.

Yahoo reported that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no "concrete danger" and that she had called a government meeting with security and intelligence chiefs for Wednesday to discuss the threats. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said 312 schools had received the threats but urged people not to panic, according to Italian media.

CNBC reported that the same purported sender also claimed responsibility for bomb threats emailed to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday, according to Reuters. Some European officials suspect Russia may be behind a campaign of disruption to everyday life in European nations supporting Ukraine after Moscow’s invasion. 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.

The current state of the situation is that the threats are being investigated, and while they are believed to be hoaxes, they have caused disruption and concern across Europe. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday he was being targeted by "cyber criminals" who were sharing his personal data online because of Italy's support for Ukraine. The attacks have prompted growing concern in Europe about the possibility of an escalation in hybrid warfare.