6000 schools in Italy evacuated after bomb threats sent by email
Thousands of educational institutions across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday following a mass wave of threatening emails. The source of the messages remains unclear.
Bomb threats target over 6000 schools in Italy
More than 6000 schools and kindergartens in Italy received bomb threats by email on Wednesday. As reported by Tages-Anzeiger, numerous institutions from the north to the south of the country were evacuated and searched by police. Law enforcement found no explosive devices.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara revised the number of affected institutions throughout the day from initially around 300 to eventually more than 6000. Secondary schools, middle schools, primary schools and kindergartens were all affected equally. Parent chat groups were flooded with concerned messages; parents had to hurriedly leave work to collect their children.
Meloni: "No concrete evidence of danger"
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated that after the searches, there were "no indications pointing to a concrete danger". She described the threats as a strategy "aimed at sowing fear and concern". In the afternoon, Meloni convened an emergency meeting with ministers, representatives of the intelligence services and the national cybersecurity agency.
In a video message that evening, she said she understood that it had been "a day of fear and inconvenience" for Italian families. "We will not allow an anonymous email to dictate our children's school calendar," Meloni declared. For Thursday, she announced that classes should proceed as normal.
Fictional name – and a trail leading to Taiwan
The starting point was a standardised email, quoted by several Italian media outlets. It was signed with the apparently fictitious name "Mikhail Andropov" and the addition "leader of the Vilayet of Misoginistan". The same name had been used the previous week for fake bomb threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria. The email announced a "genocide of Italians", mentioned an "explosive device with remote detonator placed in a plastic bag" and also contained a personal threat against Meloni.
According to the news agency Ansa, the threat emails were sent from a reportedly hacked account belonging to a Taiwanese university. The Taipei representative office in Rome stated that Taiwan condemned all forms of intimidation. Bomb threats against schools were also received on Wednesday in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland – likewise without any concrete findings.
Hostile powers or "lunatics"?
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said that it is not always "the work of foreign states or hostile actors". There are also "attention-seekers and lunatics" who can hardly wait to spread terror. Security experts pointed out that schools' email addresses are publicly accessible and threatening emails are correspondingly easy to send.
It remains unclear whether the school threats are connected to a series of other incidents. Only the previous week, flights from and to Milan and Rome had been diverted due to bomb threats in European airspace; one aircraft was escorted by Italian fighter jets. Additionally, Italy, like other places in Europe, experienced hacking attacks on supermarkets in which cooling systems were manipulated. Whether there is a coordinated strategy behind all this or whether copycat incidents are taking place remains unclear.
Schools already in a state of crisis
The events strike a country where many schools were already under pressure before the threats. Across the country, students are protesting for fairer education policy, occupying school buildings and demonstrating against wars and rising costs of living.
What is certain so far: the emails were sufficient to spread fear and disrupt the daily life of large parts of the country for a day.
Source: Tages-Anzeiger