Thousands of educational institutions across Europe received apparently false bomb threats on Wednesday, leading to mass evacuations in several countries. In Italy alone, at least 6,300 schools received the messages, while hundreds of schools in Ireland and across the United Kingdom were also affected. Although no explosives or suspicious devices have been found so far, investigations into the origin of the threats are ongoing.
The incident occurred less than a week after more than 20 flights were forced to divert due to similar threats. While authorities have not yet assigned specific blame for the school hoaxes, the events are intensifying concerns about hybrid warfare tactics aimed at Europe. Officials and security experts have noted that these disruptions align with broader efforts to target the continent amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
In Italy, schools in major cities including Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo, and Bologna suspended lessons and ordered precautionary evacuations. Police, bomb disposal specialists, and Postal Police conducted inspections to determine where the messages originated. Italian news outlets published an email reportedly sent to schools across the country on Wednesday. The message claimed to be from Mikhail Andropov, identified as the leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan, a Russian misogynistic extremist group that was banned by Moscow authorities several years ago.
CBS News confirmed last week that a message attributed to the same name and group was sent to airport authorities in Rome. That message threatened two of the flights affected by the mass hoaxes on November 5. The email published by Italian media on Wednesday stated, 'We have come to annihilate you.' It further claimed, 'I have just left a powerful explosive device with a remote detonator inside a plastic bag in your building.' The email also contained threats directed at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Prime Minister Meloni stated that there was no concrete danger behind the threats, describing the incident as part of a strategy aimed at causing alarm and concern. She convened a meeting with Italian intelligence officials and cybersecurity experts later on Wednesday to discuss the potential connection to the recent airline threats and to identify those responsible. This marks the third wave of bomb threats against Italian schools in a single month, following previous incidents on October 19 and November 2, when approximately 280 schools received messages.
In Ireland, the national police, the Garda, issued a statement acknowledging awareness of a generic communication sent to a number of educational establishments. The force deemed the threat not credible and advised that no evacuation was necessary. In Northern Ireland, police indicated that the emails threatening local schools appeared to have originated from outside the United Kingdom.
The school threats arrive amidst international investigations into various incidents in Europe and the United States, including disruptions to blood banks in France. These events are part of wider hybrid warfare sabotage and disruption efforts that Western authorities largely attribute to Russia and Iran. Additionally, reports from The New York Times and Reuters indicated that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was moved to a military base following an Iranian threat to his life.
In October, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency MI5, warned that hybrid warfare is evolving. He noted that malicious actors are now attacking targets beyond government-controlled assets, aiming at people, businesses, and communities. McCallum identified Russia as the primary aggressor, accusing its military and intelligence services of escalating hybrid warfare while carefully staying below the threshold that would trigger NATO's collective defense principle.
McCallum also highlighted a major shift in Iran's efforts to attack the United Kingdom. He stated that Iran is targeting harder assets such as military bases and using criminal proxies to intimidate oppositionists, Iranian media organizations, and Israeli sites across Europe. Experts told CBS News earlier this year that Russia and Iran are increasing their recruitment of sometimes-unwitting criminals to carry out sabotage attacks, often for small financial payouts.
Many attacks on soft targets have been claimed by a group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right. U.K. authorities have sanctioned the group and stated it is tied directly to the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. A CBS News investigation in March found that the group is active, with a member stating they would keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until they have avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations.
