Italy school bomb threats: about 300 schools evacuated by email

Schools across Italy were evacuated after anonymous emails threatening an explosion. According to the newspaper La Repubblica, the bomb alert affected at least 300 schools. Classes were also interrupted in schools in Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo and Bologna, where preventive evacuations were ordered.

What the emails say

The sender claims to have left a remotely detonated explosive device in school buildings and threatens further attacks. According to La Repubblica, the email is signed with the name Mikhail Andropov, who calls himself the leader of the “wilayat of Misogynistan” and threatens violence against Italians. The text is extremely brutal; the paper quotes the details, but there is no need to retell them.

As the paper writes, the name Mikhail Andropov has appeared before in threats against European TV channels and is linked to bomb threats on a number of flights across Europe. The email also contains a threat against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: the author claims to have planted a bomb in her car’s engine.

What the authorities are doing

Italian police and bomb disposal experts are now checking the school buildings. Cyber police officers are trying to establish where the messages came from. One theory is a coordinated campaign meant to cause panic, using spoofed email addresses.

Valditara pointed to recent threats in Europe: according to him, flights, supermarkets and, as far as he remembers, even hospitals have been targeted. He called it an obvious strategy.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz