Fresh threats as Italy says no need to evacuate schools

ROME – Several schools were evacuated in Italy for a second day on Nov 12 over e-mailed hoax bomb threats as the government sought to reassure the public after scenes of panic and chaos.

The government said there was no need to evacuate buildings over the mass e-mails after hundreds of schools were evacuated across Italy on Nov 11.

A threat supposedly from a Taiwanese account was e-mailed to thousands of schools – almost Italy’s entire state school network – on Nov 11.

Some more schools were reportedly evacuated on Nov 12 following some 1,800 e-mailed bomb threats – this time from accounts in the Philippines, according to local media.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was too soon to say if “foreign powers” were behind the recent rash of hoax bomb threats across Europe, including against flights and schools.

“As I speak, we do not have sufficient elements to be able to make an attribution,” Macron told reporters at a gathering of European leaders in Dublin, adding: “We cannot say if foreign powers are behind these calls.”

European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said any threats against civilians were “simply unacceptable” and Brussels was following the situation closely.

The threats on Nov 11 and 12 were purportedly signed off by a “Mikhail Andropov”.

After talks with intelligence and security chiefs on Nov 11, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the messages were intended to “instil fear” and said that police checks had “found nothing in any schools”.

In a statement on Nov 12, the government said that “without any concrete evidence to suggest an actual danger beyond the receipt of a mass e-mail, buildings should not be evacuated”.

There is mounting concern in Italy and across Europe that a series of recent hoax bomb threats on flights and cyber attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems could be part of a massive hybrid warfare campaign. AFP