Bomb-threat emails disrupted teaching across Italy, where at least 6300 schools received messages and precautionary evacuations followed in several cities. Checks found false alarms, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no concrete danger. Police and cybersecurity specialists investigated who sent the messages and possible links to recent airline threats.
Schools across Italy were evacuated as a precaution on Wednesday after threatening emails disrupted lessons.[1], [2]
Police checks found false alarms. At least 6300 Italian schools received the messages, and evacuations or teaching suspensions affected cities including Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo and Bologna. No explosives or suspicious devices had been reported found.[1]
Italian police and bomb-disposal teams checked school buildings while the Postal Police, which investigates communications offences, examined where the emails came from. The senders had not been identified. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no concrete danger and described the threats as an effort to spread alarm and concern. This was Italy’s third wave of school threats within a month.[1]
Meloni called intelligence officials and cybersecurity specialists to a meeting to investigate responsibility and possible connections with recent threats to airlines. Fake bomb alerts had recently disrupted commercial flights in Europe. Threatening communications also reached schools in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Ireland’s national police service assessed the generic message as not credible and did not advise evacuation, while Northern Irish police said emails there appeared to originate abroad.[1]
