A bomb alert is in effect at Calais -Frethun railway station in northern France, local authorities said on Wednesday. The bomb alert is also affecting international rail travel.
The warning could have an impact on rail traffic, Pas-de-Calais city hall said on social media platform X.
Eurostar, an international high-speed train company, said some of its trains between London and Paris were being affected.
"At the request of the French authorities, trains are currently prevented from passing through Calais -Fréthun station. This is causing delays on some services to and from London," the company said in a statement.
Schools in Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland received bomb threat emails this Wednesday (11).
In Italy, at least 300 schools were evacuated for safety reasons, the Education Minister said. The message reached around 6,300 units.
Giuseppe Valditara told television channel La7 that the alerts were probably false, but that the number of schools affected was still expected to rise. He also highlighted that the large number of schools affected "demonstrates how little credibility the threat has."
Shortly afterwards, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a public statement to calm the population and assured that "there is no danger", despite the threats. He also stated that the police and other public bodies are monitoring the situation.
"Following a nationwide bomb alert, we inform you that all students have been taken to a safe area and remain under the supervision of teachers," a school in Rome communicated to parents on a messaging app.
The mother of a student at the Mazzini school, in Rome, who went to pick up her daughter from school because of the school's closure, lamented the situation:
"My daughter Daphne started crying because the children didn't understand what was happening, and she was still shaken when I picked her up. This is very irritating. It's obvious that it's just a farce that disrupts classes and everyone's day."
In the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, despite a large number of institutions receiving the message, they were advised to remain open, as the police did not consider the threat credible.
"The message bears similarities to a false threat sent last month, which was declared a hoax by the PSNI (police)," the Northern Ireland Education Authority said.
According to Northern Irish police, the email in question was sent from outside the UK and is being treated as a hoax.
Email is signed by "leader of Misogynistan"
The news agency Reuters had access to the threatening email received by schools in Italy and revealed that the content is signed by "Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Villayate of Misogynistan".
The same alleged perpetrator claimed responsibility for bomb threats sent by email on Friday (6) to press offices in Ireland and Bulgaria.
In an interview with the Adnkronos news agency, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that Wednesday's threats are "part of a strategy that is already quite clear: spreading fear and creating anxiety."
"It is not always the work of foreign countries or hostile entities. There are also attention seekers and lunatics who, at times like this, can't wait to unleash terror on a city or region," he said.
Italian police forces are investigating the case, a Rome police spokesman said.
Hybrid warfare in Europe
This new episode comes amid growing concerns in Europe about so-called hybrid warfare threats. Cases of cyberattacks, in different sectors, have been affecting the continent over the last month.
During the early hours of October 12th, hacker attacks raised the temperature of many supermarket refrigerators in France to 50ºC, causing fires and food losses in hundreds of stores across the country.
On November 2, the same occurred in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg, affecting the refrigeration systems of markets.
This week, the target was the airline sector. Several commercial flights received false bomb threat alerts on board, causing disruption in different countries.
TV offices were also threatened in the United Kingdom on Friday (6), which led several countries to talk about "hybrid aggression" and a "coordinated campaign".
On Saturday (7), Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated that he was the target of hackers who leaked his personal data on the dark web. The Italian prime minister blamed pro-Russian hackers for the crime.
On Monday (9), French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard of being behind the cyber attack on French supermarkets.
