Thousands of schools across Italy, the United Kingdom, and Ireland received emailed bomb threats on Wednesday, November 11, triggering widespread security responses and parental concern.
In Italy, approximately 6,300 educational institutions were targeted, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education. While authorities have characterized the threats as non-credible, the scale of the incident forced the evacuation of more than 300 schools across the country.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni scheduled a government meeting for 4:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday to coordinate the state’s response and assess the situation. Meloni said that the threats posed no actual danger and confirmed that police and public agencies were monitoring security.
Giuseppe Valditara, the Italian Minister of Education, told the television channel La7 that the sheer volume of schools contacted served as evidence that the threats were not credible.
Despite official reassurances, the alerts disrupted the daily routines of thousands of families. In Rome, one school informed parents via a messaging application that all students had been moved to a secure area under staff supervision.
Antonello Giannelli, president of the Italian Association of School Principals, told Reuters that the psychological impact remains significant. “Even if the threats of today are manifest hoaxes, we cannot underestimate the consequences of incidents that worry entire school communities and disrupt the normal course of educational activities,” Giannelli said.
Similar communications reached schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. Police in Northern Ireland reported that more than 300 schools there received threatening emails, noting that the sender was located outside the United Kingdom.
Authorities in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland also received reports of foreign-originated threats, though officials in those jurisdictions indicated that regular school operations continued without disruption. Police in the Republic of Ireland described the messages as “generic communications” and said that no evacuations were necessary.
Italian police are currently investigating the origin of the emails, which reportedly referenced a “Mikhaïl Andropov, head of the vilayet of Misoginistan.” According to a copy of the message viewed by Reuters, the email also contained a threat against Prime Minister Meloni, claiming a bomb had been placed in the engine of her vehicle. Guido Crosetto, the Italian Minister of Defense, told the news agency Adnkronos that the events represent a strategy to generate fear and anxiety.
“It is not always the work of foreign countries or hostile entities,” Crosetto said. "There are also people in search of attention and unbalanced individuals who, in a period like this, are just waiting for an opportunity to sow terror in a city or a region."
Authorities have not yet identified the specific individuals behind the messages, and national police forces are continuing investigations.
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