A massive wave of suspected bomb hoaxes has targeted educational institutions across Europe, with approximately 6,300 schools in Italy and more than 700 across Scotland and Northern Ireland receiving threatening messages. While the threats prompted several precautionary evacuations, authorities in all three regions have stated there appears to be no immediate risk to the public. It remains unclear if the incidents are officially linked.
In Italy, the threats reached nearly 85% of the country’s 7,476 state schools via a single email on Wednesday, though private schools were not targeted.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addressed the situation on Facebook, noting that security checks found no evidence of “concrete danger. She suggested the reports are “linked to a strategy intended to cause alarm and concern. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara described the event as a likely “cyber-attack, not a genuine risk,” pointing to a broader pattern of threats recently targeting European airports, supermarkets, and hospitals.
The Italian messages were reportedly sent under the name of “Mikhail Andropov, leader of Vilayat di Misoginistan.” Although an extremist misogynistic group initially claimed responsibility for various threats, they later issued a denial regarding these specific false warnings. Last week, a similar series of hoaxes caused significant disruption at Italian airports and for several European airlines. These children had to leave their primary school in Rome as a result of one of the threats sent on Wednesday.
In the United Kingdom, Scottish education secretary Mairi McAllan confirmed that specialist cyber-crime officers are working to trace the origin of the messages. Speaking as both a parent and a representative, McAllan acknowledged the deep concern the threats caused for families and staff, despite the lack of public risk. Police Scotland reported that the warnings were “immediately assessed” as hoaxes, advising that there was no requirement to keep children home or evacuate based solely on the emails, though some local authorities chose to evacuate schools regardless. For pupils, for carers and for school staff,” McAllan said, as a parent and as a constituency MSP I understand just how concerning this will be for parents.
Similarly, education officials in Northern Ireland advised schools to remain open and operate as normal unless they received direct instructions to the contrary from the police. The coordinated nature of the digital threats has sparked a wide-scale investigation into the source of the communication to determine if they are part of the larger campaign of disruption seen elsewhere in Europe.
