Schools in Italy, UK and Ireland receive fake bomb alerts

ROME: Thousands of schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after receiving bomb threats, with around 6,300 institutions targeted by warning emails.

Similar messages were also reported in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but authorities there dismissed them as hoaxes without interrupting classes.

The alerts caused widespread disruption in Italy, forcing parents to leave work and other activities to collect their children as schools were quickly evacuated.

Parents described the incident as distressing for students, with some children left frightened and confused by the sudden evacuation.

A copy of the email reviewed by Reuters also contained threats against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. However, Meloni said the warnings posed no actual danger and confirmed that police and relevant authorities were monitoring the situation.

Schools in Rome informed parents that students had been moved to safe locations and were being supervised by teaching staff.

The threatening message was reportedly signed by an individual claiming to be Mikhail Andropov, leader of the so-called Vilayat of Misoginistan.

A national security source told Reuters that publicly available school email addresses had made it easy for the messages to be sent.

The same individual had also claimed responsibility for bomb threat emails targeting newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria on Friday.