About 6,000 Italian schools received the same bomb threat by email on Wednesday, according to Italy's education ministry. Al Jazeera put the figure at about 6,300. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told the La7 TV channel that at least 300 schools were affected and that the number could rise. Hundreds were reported evacuated.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks so far showed no sign of a concrete danger. On Facebook, she wrote that the threats appeared linked to "a strategy aimed at generating alarm and concern". A meeting of government ministers was convened, and investigations are under way. Valditara said the incident was most likely a cyberattack rather than a genuine threat. He added that intelligence services were working to identify those behind it.
Reuters saw a copy of the email and reported that it also threatened Meloni. According to Reuters, it was signed by "Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan". Italian press reports said the email included the words "we have come to annihilate you". Al Jazeera reported that the same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday.
Schools in the UK were hit on the same day. Police Scotland said about 1,000 Scottish schools received the warnings, up from an earlier estimate of 470. At least 300 schools in Northern Ireland were affected. Edinburgh briefly evacuated schools as a precaution, and Dumfries and Galloway sent some children home. Police said the emails were hoaxes and that schools did not need to evacuate. Police Scotland's cyber and fraud unit is working with law enforcement in the UK and abroad.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland called the risk to the public low, and schools there were told to stay open. Ireland's Garda Síochána said a similar message sent to schools in the Republic was "not credible". It did not call for any evacuations. Scottish schools received a similar hoax on October 19.
The threats follow a wave of disruption across Europe, Al Jazeera reported. This month, bomb threats have forced flights to divert or stay on the ground. Hackers have also raised fridge temperatures at supermarkets in Germany, Romania and the UK. On Tuesday, France summoned Iran's ambassador over a similar attack on its supermarkets in October. Tehran called the accusation "baseless". Some European officials suspect Russia of orchestrating the campaign, which Moscow denies.