Bomb threats hit hundreds of schools in Italy, Ireland and UK

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Italian authorities said it was “likely a cyberattack” rather a “real threat.”

A fresh wave of bomb threats at schools in Italy, the U.K. and Ireland caused widespread disruption and evacuations Wednesday, local media reported.

In Italy, more than 300 schools were evacuated on Wednesday after receiving identical bomb threats. Students were taken to safety, while Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara later clarified that the threats were fake. “The concrete risk is virtually nonexistent. It is most likely a cyberattack, not a real threat,” he told Italian news agency ANSA.

The minister also said it was difficult to identify who was behind the threats, adding that the judiciary would carry out investigations and “investments in security are essential.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on Facebook that the country was “doing everything necessary to ensure the safety of citizens.”

“At the moment, from the investigations carried out, there is no element that makes a concrete danger seem to be persistent,” she added.

Similar threats were received by schools in the U.K. and Ireland, with more than 270 Scottish schools and over 300 schools in Northern Ireland targeted. Some schools in England and the Republic of Ireland also received emails. Irish Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton said that police assessed the emails as “not credible” and that “there is no need for schools to evacuate.”

The latest threats come after several of Ireland’s top media outlets and at least 18 European flights were targeted last Friday, with at least 22 flights disrupted the day before, forcing some to divert or make emergency landings and prompting fighter-jet escorts. Authorities found no explosives on board the aircraft.

ANSA reported that the threats against flights were signed “Fighters of the Male State” — a reference to a Russian ultranationalist, misogynistic movement which Moscow banned in 2021. The group’s founder denied involvement.

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