Hundreds of schools in Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after bomb-threat emails were sent to educational institutions across Europe, while police in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland said similar messages were being treated as hoaxes.
Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the alerts appeared intended to cause disruption rather than pose a genuine threat, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks had not found evidence of concrete danger.
Reuters reported that more than 300 Italian schools were evacuated after receiving the messages, affecting cities including Rome, Naples, Florence, Pisa, Trieste and Vicenza.
The BBC reported that about 300 schools had received threats, while separate Italian reports cited by the broadcaster said 280 head teachers had been contacted in recent days.
Authorities lifted alerts at a number of schools after checks found no danger.
The email seen by Reuters was signed by a purported sender using the name “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan.”
Reuters said the same purported author had claimed responsibility for threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on November 6.
There has been no verified public attribution identifying who sent the latest school emails.
In Northern Ireland, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said more than 300 schools reported receiving the same threatening email and that checks had found nothing untoward.
The force said the message originated outside the UK and assessed the risk to the public as low.
Police Scotland likewise said the emails were hoaxes and advised that schools did not need to evacuate solely because of the messages.
The incidents follow an earlier wave on October 19, when up to 300 schools in Northern Ireland received a similar threatening email and Police Scotland also investigated messages sent to schools across Scotland.
Both police services classified those earlier threats as hoaxes, showing Wednesday’s disruption was part of a recurring pattern.
Authorities in the Republic of Ireland said a generic communication sent to educational establishments was not considered credible.
Italian officials said investigations were continuing into the source of the messages.