More than 1,800 Italian schools targeted by new hoax bomb alerts

What the report says

Italian authorities said more than 1,800 schools received bomb-threat emails on Thursday, following similar alerts sent to about 6,300 schools a day earlier. According to Al Jazeera’s reporting, many schools shut down right away, prompting parents to pick up children and causing major disruption across the country. Police in Rome said there was nothing to support the threats.

The emails were reportedly signed by a figure calling himself “Mikhail Andropov” and claiming to lead the “Vilayat of Misoginistan,” according to the Italian news agency Ansa, as cited by Al Jazeera. The same name was also linked to previous bomb threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria last week. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called opposition leaders for discussions on how to respond to the incidents.

Meloni’s office said schools should not be evacuated unless there are concrete signs of real danger, and said it would instruct schools accordingly. Opposition parties argued the government should devote more resources to cyberdefence and coordination against such attacks. The events come amid wider European concern about suspected hybrid warfare tactics, including hoaxes and cyber-related disruption targeting public institutions and infrastructure. Al Jazeera noted that several European countries have recently faced similar threats that officials have treated as false alarms.