Bomb threats force evacuation of Irish broadcaster RTÉ and several newsrooms, Sky News also warned

In brief

• Several Irish media offices, including RTÉ, were evacuated in Dublin on Friday after bomb threat emails were received.
• Sky News in Britain reported a security threat the same morning and informed the authorities.
• The emails warned of a new wave of attacks against aircraft, cruise ships, metro stations and trains.
• Officials have not yet identified who is behind the threats, and Russia's involvement remains unconfirmed.

Evacuations in Dublin

Staff at RTÉ were moved out of buildings on its Donnybrook campus after an email warned that a bomb would go off within 45 minutes (Прем’єр Ірландії заявляє, що саміти в Дубліні не під загрозою через погрози вибухів – Європейська правда) (L’Irlande visée par des alertes à la bombe une semaine avant la tenue de deux sommets européens à Dublin – Le Monde). Police ran an operation at the site and searched the grounds building by building, and the broadcaster's Dublin premises stayed closed for a time. RTÉ shifted to mostly pre-recorded programming while the buildings were cleared («Во время прямого эфира». В Ирландии эвакуировали ряд редакций ведущих СМИ из-за угроз взрывов – NV).

The Irish Independent and Mediahaus newsrooms on Talbot Street were also evacuated for a while as a precaution (FT: в Ірландії непокояться, що винуватці фальшивих "замінувань" хочуть зірвати саміт ЄС – Європейська правда). Newstalk resumed broadcasting late in the morning after staff were allowed back into their central Dublin building, and the threat was later treated as a false alarm (Низка ірландських ЗМІ отримали повідомлення про загрози вибуху – Suspilne). Virgin Media also received a threat but kept broadcasting.

Threats reach Britain

Sky News said it was one of several media organisations to receive a security threat that Friday morning. The Comcast-owned broadcaster said it had carried out a security assessment and reported the matter to the authorities (Alarmy bombowe w europejskich mediach. Ewakuowano redakcje, zagrożenie dotarło do Londynu – Bankier.pl).

Link to aviation threats

One message warned that a new wave of attacks was being prepared and listed aircraft, cruise ships, metro stations and trains as targets (Bombové hrozby zasiahli aj Írsko. Evakuovali televíziu, noviny aj rozhlasové stanice – Aktuality.sk). Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris said it was not yet clear whether one person or a coordinated effort was behind the threats. The government said the incidents were likely part of a coordinated campaign to destabilise, but no one has been identified.

Flights in Czechia, Romania, Italy, Bulgaria and Belgium were diverted or landed after similar warnings in recent days. Prime Minister Micheál Martin said he believed two European summits planned for Dublin next week were not under threat, and that it was too early to say whether Russia was behind the hoaxes.

Read also

• Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome diverted to French air base over bomb alert
• Bomb threats hit more than a dozen European flights in one day; no explosives found
• European TV stations receive bomb threats by email signed 'Mikhail Andropov'