In brief

• Around 6,000 Italian schools received a bomb threat email on Wednesday, and at least 300 were evacuated as a precaution.
• Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks so far found no concrete danger and announced an investigation.
• Similar hoax threats hit about 1,000 schools in Scotland and at least 300 in Northern Ireland, where no evacuations were reported.

Evacuations across several Italian cities

An email containing a bomb threat reached schools across Italy on Wednesday. The education ministry said about 6,000 schools received the message (Bombendrohungen an Tausenden Schulen in Italien und Großbritannien – tagesschau.de) (Hoax bomb threats made to hundreds of schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland – The Guardian). Officials said at least 300 of them were evacuated as a precaution, with pupils, teachers and staff leaving buildings in several cities, including Rome and Turin (Italien: Hunderte Schulen nach Bombendrohungen evakuiert – Giorgia Meloni gibt Entwarnung – DER SPIEGEL) (🔴Italy: At least 300 schools evacuated after email bomb alerts – France 24). Police searched classrooms in some of the affected sites (Les écoles italiennes, irlandaises et écossaises visées par des alertes à la bombe – Le Monde).

Government says there is no danger

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks carried out so far had turned up no sign of a concrete threat (Allarme bomba in oltre 300 scuole in Italia, evacuazioni e controlli. Meloni: 'Grande attenzione, ma non ci sono pericoli concreti' – ANSA). She described the episode on Facebook as a strategy designed to spread alarm and fear, and announced a broad investigation into the incidents and an emergency government meeting. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said on television that this was not the first such case, and that the large number of schools involved showed how unreliable the threat was. He also pointed to hybrid warfare as a growing tool for destabilisation.

Similar threats in the UK and Ireland

On the same day, police in Scotland reported that roughly 1,000 schools, stretching from the Dumfries area in the south to Orkney in the north, had received hoax warnings, while at least 300 were affected in Northern Ireland. No evacuations were reported there, and Northern Irish police treated the email as a joke (Europa - Flut von Droh-Mails gegen Schulen in Italien, Nordirland und Schottland – Deutschlandfunk). Schools in the Republic of Ireland were sent a general notice about similar claims.

Wider context

The origin of the emails remains unknown, and authorities have not named any suspects. Similar threats were sent earlier in November against at least 30 European aircraft, and Spain's foreign minister said they could be an attack by authoritarian forces on European democracy.