At least 300 schools evacuated in Italy after email bomb alerts

What the report says

At least 300 schools in Italy were evacuated after receiving the same bomb threat by email, according to Al Jazeera, which reported that Italian police have opened an investigation. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there was no evidence of any real danger, while Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the number of affected schools could still increase. He told Italian broadcaster La7 that authorities believed the messages were more likely part of a cyberattack or hoax than a genuine threat.

The evacuations came on Wednesday, as Italy and other European countries dealt with a broader wave of suspicious messages and disruption. Al Jazeera reported that schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received threatening emails the same day. In both places, police and education authorities said the alerts did not appear credible and advised schools not to treat them as genuine bomb threats.

The article placed the school alerts in the context of growing concern in Europe over hybrid threats and cyber-related disruptions. It noted that recent incidents have affected aviation, supermarkets and other public services across the region. While the source did not identify who was behind the emails, it said intelligence and cybercrime units in Italy and the UK were working to trace the origin of the messages.