What happened
Hundreds of schools in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy received a threatening email on Wednesday that authorities are treating as a hoax. In Italy, roughly 300 schools were evacuated after the alerts were received.
Police in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland said the messages originated from outside the United Kingdom and were assessed as non-credible. Scottish police stated there was nothing to suggest a credible threat or any wider danger to the public.
Irish police described the communication as generic and said there should be no evacuation. Police in Northern Ireland said more than 300 schools in the province received a threatening email and were treating it as a hoax.
Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told La7 TV that the alerts were presumed to be hoaxes and that the number of affected schools was expected to rise. A school in Rome informed parents through a messaging app that all students had been taken to a safe area and remained under staff supervision.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said the threats were part of a clear strategy to spread fear and create anxiety, adding that such incidents are not always the work of foreign countries or hostile entities and can involve attention-seekers. Italian police forces are investigating the matter.
A copy of the email seen by Reuters was signed by a purported author calling themselves Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan. The same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent on Friday to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria.