Thousands of schools across Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland received bomb threats on Wednesday, November 11, prompting evacuations and the suspension of lessons in several Italian cities.
At least 6,300 schools in Italy received threatening messages, alongside hundreds of educational institutions in Ireland and the UK, according to CBS News.
Although no explosives or suspicious devices had been reported at the affected schools as of Wednesday, investigations were ongoing as authorities worked to establish the origin of the messages.
Schools in Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo and Bologna were among those affected. Police officers, bomb disposal specialists and the Postal Police conducted inspections following the threats.
The incidents have raised concerns about possible links to wider hybrid warfare activities targeting European countries, although authorities have not identified those responsible for the latest threats.
Email claims responsibility for threats
Italian media published an email allegedly sent to schools across the country, claiming to be from “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan,” a Russian misogynistic extremist group reportedly banned by Moscow several years ago.
The message contained a threat against school buildings, stating: “We have come to annihilate you,” and claiming that an explosive device had been placed inside a building.
The email also contained threats against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni said there was no “concrete danger” behind the threats, describing them as part of “a strategy aimed at causing alarm and concern.”
She scheduled a meeting with intelligence officials and cybersecurity experts to examine possible connections between the school threats and earlier incidents involving commercial flights.
Third wave of threats in Italy
Wednesday’s incident was the third reported wave of bomb threats against Italian schools within a month.
The earlier threats were received on October 19 and November 2, when approximately 280 schools reportedly received threatening messages.
CBS News also reported that a message attributed to the same name and group had been sent to airport authorities in Rome last week, threatening two commercial flights affected by bomb hoaxes on November 5.
More than 20 European commercial flights received fake bomb threats during that incident, forcing several aircraft to divert.
Ireland and UK schools also targeted
Hundreds of schools in Ireland and across the United Kingdom also received threatening emails on Wednesday.
Ireland’s national police, the Garda, said it was “aware of a generic communication that has been sent to a number of educational establishments.”
However, the force described the threat as “not credible” and said it was not advising schools to evacuate.
Police in Northern Ireland said the emails threatening schools in the region appeared to have originated outside the United Kingdom.
Concerns over hybrid warfare
The school threats come amid growing concerns among European security officials about hybrid warfare, which involves activities such as cyberattacks, sabotage, intimidation and other forms of disruption.
In October, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 chief, Sir Ken McCallum, warned that security threats facing the UK and Europe were increasingly targeting individuals, businesses and communities rather than government institutions alone.
“Russia remains aggressor number one,” McCallum said, accusing Moscow’s military and intelligence services of escalating their hybrid warfare activities.
He also said Iran had made a “major shift” in its efforts to target the UK, including attacks on military installations and the use of criminal proxies to intimidate opposition groups and Israeli-linked sites across Europe.
Western authorities have also investigated cyberattacks targeting grocery store refrigeration systems and blood banks in France, alongside other suspected sabotage activities.
However, no responsibility has been established for Wednesday’s school threats, and investigators are still examining the messages and their possible connections to previous incidents.
