Mass Hoax Bomb Threat Hits Thousands of Italian Schools

Numerous schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after some 6,300 education centers received a hoax bomb threat via email.

The public broadcaster Rai reports that thousands of Italian schools received the threatening email during the morning hours of Wednesday, right as a new school day was underway. The situation prompted the evacuation of some, but not all of the thousands of schools. Police officers searched through the premises of the evacuated centers, but found nothing.

Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara affirmed to reporters that there was a “non-existent risk” derived from the hoax email, but pointed out to the recent string of false bomb threats across Europe.

Rai, and other Italian outlets, published the contents of the hoax threat — which was reportedly sent to the schools through email addresses from Taiwan. In the text, an anonymous individual claiming to be “Mikhail Andropov” from the Vilayat (“Province” in Arabic) of “Misoginistan” threatened with the “annihilation” and “genocide” of  Italians.

“I have been preparing for this for a long time: to kill every single one of you. I have just left a powerful explosive device with a remote detonator inside a plastic bag in your building,” the hoax email reportedly read.

“I positioned it so that the shock wave will spread throughout the entire building. All that will remain of you are bones and a bloody pulp,” the text continued.

The threatening message also claimed that a “bomb” had been planted in the Italian Prime Minister’s car, and further threatened, “after that, we will finish off the survivors with knives.”

At press time, Italian authorities have not attributed the bomb threats to any specific state or entity. Per TGCOM24, investigators detailed that the author may have utilized phished Taiwanese email addresses to send the threats to the Italian schools, as there are indications that at least one of the addresses used to spread the hoax is linked to a Taiwanese university. 

The BBC reports that in addition to the bomb threats sent to the roughly 6,300 Italian schools, more than 700 schools across Scotland and Northern Ireland received similar threats. The BBC obtained a copy of the threat email and noted similarities in the wording of the text with the one sent to Italian schools. Scottish Education Secretary Mairi McAllan said that there was no risk to the public, while in Northern Ireland, officials reportedly told schools to remain open unless otherwise advised by the police.

Following Wednesday’s mass bomb hoax, Minister Valditara informed that school activities have normally resumed across Italy on Thursday morning.

Addressing the situation through a video published on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed that law enforcement agents searched every evacuated classroom, but nothing was found in any of the schools.

“I know that for many families, this was a day of fear or anxiety, I understand that, and I certainly don’t underestimate it,” Meloni said. “I want to thank the school administrators, teachers, and staff who handled everything calmly and kept the students reassured.”

Meloni noted that it is not the first time an hoax of this nature has occurred, and pointed out to the threats also received by British schools — in addition to last week’s false bomb threats across European airports.

The Italian Prime Minister explained that a government meeting with intelligence and cybersecurity representatives resulted in three main conclusions. The first, she said, is that “there is no evidence indicating a concrete threat.”

“Second, these messages are not meant to cause harm, they are meant to instill fear,” Meloni stressed. “Those who write them want, above all, to see us afraid—to see our days wasted, filled with suspicion and chaos.”

As a third point, Meloni further explained that investibsastors and the judiciary are working together with their European counterparts to identify those behind these hoaxes. She emphasized that she will not speculate on the matter, and will inform once there is a certainty of the facts.

“We are working to deploy every tool at our disposal to minimize the impact of these attacks. Every alert will continue to be verified one by one,” Meloni said. “I can assure you that we do not intend to let our guard down, because we will not allow an anonymous email to dictate our children’s school calendar.”