Thousands of schools in Italy, Scotland and Ireland receive bomb threats

{"text":[[{"start":13.04,"text":"Thousands of schools across Italy and dozens in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland received bomb threats on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest co-ordinated attack aimed at disrupting life in Europe."}],[{"start":25.32,"text":"Italy’s education ministry said that about 6,000 schools received threatening emails warning of bombs hidden on their premises, leading to mass evacuations of children from classrooms and extensive police searches."}],[{"start":38.5,"text":"Dozens of schools in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland were subjected to similar threats, also leading to some evacuations. Authorities in all those countries said they deemed the threats to be a hoax."}],[{"start":50.62,"text":"The threats come a week after dozens of European flights were forced to make emergency landings after airlines and airports received similar malicious communications warning of explosives hidden on planes."}],[{"start":62.8,"text":"European intelligence agencies are already involved in a cross-border effort to find those responsible for the airline hoaxes, suspecting a hostile foreign state or activists linked to a foreign intelligence service may be responsible. No conclusions have been reached about attribution."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":78.32,"text":"Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto said on Wednesday that the wave of emails was part of a campaign to create panic and disruption in European countries."}],[{"start":87.04,"text":"“It’s part of a strategy that’s now clear: to sow terror or create concern, which is too easy,” Crosetto said."}],[{"start":94.44,"text":"However, he declined to speculate on who might be responsible."}],[{"start":97.8,"text":"“Idiots also get involved in this strategy,” Crosetto added. “It’s not always the strategies of foreign countries or hostile entities that are behind it; there are also mythomaniacs and lunatics who, at a time like this, can’t wait to unleash terror in a city or region.”"}],[{"start":113.4,"text":"Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to reassure the public, saying that law enforcement officials searching schools across Italy had found “no evidence to suggest . . . any concrete danger”."}],[{"start":124.12,"text":"Instead, Meloni — who has called an emergency meeting to discuss the events — said the hoaxes were “part of strategy intended to cause alarm and concern”."}],[{"start":133.36,"text":"The Italian government said schools across the country had received an email saying: “This is Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan. We have come to annihilate you. We will carry out a genocide against the Italian people.”"}],[{"start":149.16,"text":"“I have just left in your building, inside a plastic bag, a powerful explosive with remote detonation,” the email added. The sender also claimed to have left a bomb in the prime minister’s car."}],[{"start":161.48,"text":"The messages sent to schools in Ireland also claimed to be from “Mikhail Andropov”, according to the Irish Mirror newspaper."}],[{"start":169.56,"text":"Security officials stress that such emails are simple to generate and their origins easy to obscure. They could be the work of a single individual, multiple unconnected individuals, copycats or even a false-flag operation."}],[{"start":183.92,"text":"Russian pro-Kremlin activists were a credible potential suspect in last week’s threats against airlines, one intelligence official said, citing motive and precedent."}],[{"start":194.08,"text":"Such activists already had a record of making malicious bomb threats against targets in the Baltic states, including schools, the official pointed out."}],[{"start":202.8,"text":"In October 2023, a campaign of false bomb threats in Lithuania targeted 1,500 schools and kindergartens. Lithuanian intelligence services believe the threats originated in Russia. Further bomb threats against Lithuanian schools were made this summer."}],[{"start":219.56,"text":"Schools in the UK and Ireland had already been targeted with mass email threats in recent months. In September, a number of primary schools in London received threatening emails, while last month hundreds of schools in Scotland were targeted. Irish media organisations have also received the threatening messages."}],[{"start":237.52,"text":"But the cross-border nature of Wednesday’s threats against schools, hitting a number of European countries, appears to be a new development."}],[{"start":244.88,"text":"Iran is also considered a possible culprit, as its intelligence services have stepped up disruptive actions against European civilian targets."}],[{"start":253.12,"text":"On Monday, French authorities blamed Tehran for cyber attacks in October that destroyed refrigerated stock at hundreds of supermarkets, raising fears over food security."}],[{"start":263.12,"text":"Amid widespread recent social unrest in France and elsewhere in Europe, security officials are also being careful not to rule out homegrown political activists."}],[{"start":273.14,"text":"Police Scotland said on Wednesday that the school threats “have been sent widely to distribution lists across the UK and Northern Ireland and our assessment remains that they do not represent a credible threat”."}],[{"start":284.2,"text":"In Northern Ireland, the education ministry said “another threatening email” had been sent to a “large number of schools”, but advised that schools should remain open."}],[{"start":293.16,"text":"Companies and countries have wrestled with how seriously to take the threats. The head of the UK’s aviation regulator on Wednesday said the country’s response to last week’s wave of bomb hoaxes was more “proportionate” than in other European countries."}],[{"start":306.88,"text":"CAA chief executive Rob Bishton said: “What you got from the UK side of it was a by-the-book proportionate response that also took account of the risk appetite but also the threat level . . . In other parts of Europe you saw a different approach because [of] potentially different risk appetite and more caution taken . . . which is why I think . . . it generated the number of issues it did.”"}],[{"start":329.28,"text":"Italy’s Meloni has called opposition leaders for discussions on the hoax, cyber attacks and other hybrid threats to Italy, while Crosetto said Italian law enforcement are working to determine precisely who was responsible."}],[{"start":341.88,"text":"The threats come as about 50 leaders from the EU, UK, Ukraine, Canada and others were due to fly to Dublin for a summit on Thursday, to be followed by an EU leaders’ meeting on Friday."}],[{"start":352.96,"text":"Additional reporting by Stefania Palma and Peter Campbell in London and Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome"}],[{"start":364.64,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794454303_1178.mp3"}