From schools to flights, wave of false alarms in a month

The false bomb alerts that reached around 6,000 schools throughout Italy represent only the latest act in a long series of episodes that have involved a large part of the continent for a month now. Starting from the second half of October, waves of emails, messages and phone calls threatening imminent bomb explosions have repeatedly created days of chaos across half of Europe, with hundreds of institutions evacuated and flights diverted.

Before the bomb scares of 11 November there were several events that affected numerous European countries, from the United Kingdom to Serbia. The episodes began last October 19, when false announcements of bomb attacks involved hundreds of schools in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Hungary and Serbia. On that occasion, many schools were evacuated as a precaution. It has not yet been clarified whether the cases in the various countries were linked to each other.

In Northern Ireland the threatening message would have been of an Islamic extremist nature. According to Northern Ireland law enforcement, up to 300 schools had received the same announcement via email, containing a general threat, which was also sent to some schools across the UK. In Hungary, the police reported, emails had been sent to local media claiming that bombs had been planted in more than 70 schools in the country. Many institutions had been evacuated, but the authorities later confirmed that no explosives had been found. In neighboring Serbia, state broadcaster RTS reported that more than 100 schools had received similar threats.

Italian schools had also already been targeted by false bomb threats before the escalation on 11 November. On November 2, the heads of 279 institutions were sent an email signed "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps", announcing that a bag containing explosives and a detonator had been left inside which they would set off after an hour. They also added that, to prove that it was not a joke, they would have detonated a bomb on a flight bound for Rome.

Among the regions affected on that occasion were Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli, Liguria, Lazio and Tuscany. "We are faced with the activity of truly irresponsible people who use e-mail to sow panic not only among students and teachers, but also among families, who have the right to feel that school is a safe and protected place also from the actions of those who believe they can play with fear, creating a climate of tension and intimidation" commented the governor of Veneto, Alberto Stefani.