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About 1,800 schools across Italy, from Milan in the north to Sicily in the south, reported receiving bomb threats for a second consecutive day, prompting fresh alarm and evacuations. No devices have been found, according to the BBC.
The threats were similar to an email that caused disruption across Italy on Wednesday. The government advised schools that buildings should not be evacuated if the only indication of danger is receipt of a mass email and there is no other concrete evidence.
The Wednesday email was sent to 6,300 of Italy’s 7,476 state schools and was signed by someone calling himself “Mikhail Andropov, leader of Vilayat di Misoginistan”. Some officials say it originated in Taiwan.
A similar message sent to schools on Thursday, also signed by Mikhail Andropov, is reported to have come from the account of a teacher in the Philippines. The account is believed to have been hacked.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the incidents as “a strategy intended to cause alarm and concern”. Many parents have voiced concern and called on the government to provide clarity and take action.
La Repubblica reported that protests were held over a decision by a secondary-school headteacher in Rome not to act on a threat. She had concluded that typos in the message indicated it was “fake”. Protesters are seeking new national guidelines, the newspaper said.
Schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received threats on Wednesday. It is not clear whether those incidents are connected to the Italian alerts.
On Thursday morning, a bomb alert at a railway station in Calais delayed domestic and international train services in northern France.
The latest warnings follow a series of bomb hoaxes targeting airports and airlines in several European countries last week. An extremist misogynistic group claimed responsibility for a number of threats, but later denied any link to the false warnings.
