Italy Hit by Second Day of School Bomb Threats as Meloni Summons Opposition
Authorities said schools should stay open unless there is concrete danger after hoax bomb emails reached about 6,000 state schools and prompted evacuations.
- On Wednesday, hoax bomb threats emailed to around 6,000 schools across Italy triggered widespread evacuations and police searches in Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples, Venice, and Trieste.
- Authorities traced Wednesday's initial mass email to a Taiwanese account, while a second wave of threats on Thursday originated from an account in the Philippines.
- Italy's government advised schools on Thursday that buildings should not be evacuated based solely on mass emails without concrete evidence; classes resumed despite isolated incidents like Palermo's Umberto I classical high school evacuation.
- Prosecutors are investigating the threats as public service disruptions and false alarms, while similar hoax alerts occurred in Britain, Ireland, and Scotland, leading to additional evacuations.
- These alerts mirror recent European cyber attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reported being targeted by "cyber criminals" sharing his personal data due to Italy's support for Ukraine.
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In Italy, more than 8,000 institutions received bomb threats via email in two days. Similar messages caused panic in British schools the day before.
More than 1,800 Italian schools received false bomb alerts on Thursday (12), but many decided to remain open, following new directions from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government on how to deal with this type of threat to safety. The Meloni government stated that public buildings should only be evacuated when there are concrete indications of danger, after a wave of false bomb alerts on Wednesday (11) causing the closure of schools throughou…
Opposition leaders offer cooperation after premier briefs them on cyber threats, false bomb alerts that disrupted schools nationwide
Statements made to the press
THE GOVERNMENT of Giorgio Meloni will limit evacuations due to false bomb threats.
More than 1800 schools in Italy are said to have received bomb threats by e-mail. There is no evidence of a real danger so far. The government rejects blanket evacuations.
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