Hundreds of schools across Europe received emailed bomb threats on Nov. 11, which authorities in Italy, the UK, and the Republic of Ireland said were not credible.
About 300 schools in Italy received emails containing threats, and Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said that number was expected to rise.
“They have targeted flights, supermarkets, and—if I recall correctly—even hospitals,” he said on La7’s “L’Aria che Tira,” Italian news agency ANSA reported, and he said it is clear that whoever is behind the emails has a “strategy at play.”
“It is difficult to say at this moment who might be behind it; intelligence services are, of course, working to identify them.”
He said the judiciary would also be conducting an investigation.
“[It is] evident that we must protect ourselves,” he said.
The Veneto regional government confirmed that dozens of schools across its jurisdiction had received the threats, saying that students, teachers, and school staff were evacuated as a precaution while police investigated.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a meeting at the Chigi Palace in Rome to assess the situation and coordinate further initiatives, she said in a Nov. 11 post on Facebook.
The same day, Police Scotland said that threatening messages were sent to a number of schools across the country and elsewhere in the UK, but it stated that they were assessed and are being treated as hoaxes.
The force stated that although it understood that such threats could cause distress to students, parents, and teachers, its advice was not to evacuate schools or keep children away from education based solely on the content of the emails.
“Police Scotland’s Cyber and Fraud Unit is carrying out extensive enquiries to establish the source of the messages, and officers continue to liaise with law enforcement partners across the UK and internationally,” the force said.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said that similar threats to those received in Scotland had been sent to more than 300 schools in the country, and it stated that they were treating them as a hoax.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally said that inquiries are ongoing.
“At this stage we consider risk to the public as low,” he said.
Across the border in the Republic of Ireland, police also confirmed that they were “engaging with a number of educational establishments” in a statement, according to Irish publication The Journal.
“An Garda Siochana [Irish police] assess this threat as not credible and is not advising any educational establishment to evacuate,” a Garda spokesperson said, according to The Journal.
Officers from the National Security Intelligence Service are investigating, The Journal reported.
The threats against schools across Europe come after airlines, airports, and media outlets fell victim to similar hoaxes last week.
In addition to the bomb threats, several supermarket chains across Europe reported technical incidents with their refrigerator systems, including rising temperatures, and companies blamed potential cyberattacks.
Incidents were reported in Belgium, Ireland, and Sweden, among other countries, on Nov. 2, following similar attacks that took place across France last month.
The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs alleged on Nov. 9 that the attacks on Oct. 11 to 12 that targeted supermarket refrigeration controllers, affecting some 700 major retail locations across France, were conducted by the Shahid Kaveh cyberoffensive unit, affiliated with the electronic and cybercenter of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
