Hundreds of Schools Across Europe Evacuated Over Bomb Threats

ملخص مفصل

Hundreds of schools across at least three different countries in Europe have received bomb threat emails as part of a hoax to “create concern” and “unleash terror.” Around 300…

Hundreds of schools across at least three different countries in Europe have received bomb threat emails as part of a hoax to “create concern” and “unleash terror.”

Around 300 schools in Italy were evacuated on Wednesday, along with others in Ireland and the U.K. They are the latest in a series of cyberattacks and bomb hoaxes that have disrupted supermarkets, blood banks, air travel and television broadcasters across Europe.

Authorities in all places have said they do not think the threat is credible. Some schools in Italy, Ireland and Northern Ireland were emptied as a precaution while police in Scotland said there is “no requirement to evacuate schools."

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in a press conference: "The strategy is to create concern. It's too easy; any of us, with the means and tools available, could send an email to a school, a kindergarten, an airline, and say 'there's a bomb.' It's part of a strategy that even idiots can play into. It's not always the strategies of foreign countries or hostile forces; there are also mythomaniacs, madmen who, at a time like this, can't wait to unleash terror on a city.”

It is not known exactly what each email said, but local Irish newspaper Limerick Leader reported that the message sent to affected schools there read: “I left a powerful explosive device with a remote detonator in a plastic bag inside your building.”

Meanwhile, the email received in Italy was signed “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan,” according to Reuters, the same author who claimed responsibility for bomb threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday.

The number of schools receiving a bomb threat email is expected to rise above the 300 known about on Wednesday morning, Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told broadcaster La7.

The Italian government has grouped these threats in with a series of disruptions that have hit Europe in recent weeks, with Crosetto calling them “part of a strategy that is…

It…

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من Newsweek. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.