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Paul Kirby European Digital Editor
On the 11th, there was an incident in Italy where bomb threats were sent to approximately 6,300 public schools all at once. More than 700 schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received bomb threats. The threat is believed to be fake, but some schools were evacuated.
In Italy, several schools were told to evacuate their buildings as a precautionary measure. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said investigations so far had found no evidence of "concrete danger".
"Reports (of fake bomb threats) appear to go hand-in-hand with a strategy aimed at causing fear and concern," Prime Minister Meloni said in a Facebook post.
Scottish Government Education Secretary Mhairi McCullan said there was no risk to the public and that specialist cybercrime investigators were working to determine the source of the messages. Education authorities in Northern Ireland have instructed schools to remain open unless told otherwise by police.
It is unclear whether the series of incidents are related.
"As a parent and an elected member of the Scottish Parliament, I understand how worrying this is for parents, carers, pupils and school staff," Education Secretary Andrew McCullum said.
Police Scotland earlier said the threat was "immediately" determined to be a prank. However, some schools in some local governments reportedly took evacuation measures.
"It is our view that there is no need to evacuate a school or remove children from school solely because of the content of the email," Police Scotland said.
According to Italian authorities, an email with the same content was sent to 6,300 out of 7,476 public schools on the 11th. Private schools were not affected.
Messages from a man identified as ``Mikhail Andropov, leader of Vilayat di Misogynistan (a term coined from the elements of Islam, misogyny, and nationhood)'' caused anxiety in many schools.
The BBC has seen an email sent to schools in Scotland that contained similar text and also mentioned the name "Mikhail Andropov." However, Andropov claimed to be the leader of the Red Owl project.
Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the incidents targeting schools were "likely cyber attacks and not a real, concrete threat." He added that there appears to be a clear strategy behind a spate of fake threats targeting the airline industry, supermarkets and even hospitals across Europe.
Bomb threats against arriving flights were received at some airports in Italy last week, sparking fears, evacuations and widespread chaos. Officials said the threats to the airport were signed by groups or individuals calling themselves "Male Nation Warriors." It was initially thought to be a reference to Russia's far-right group Mzhizkoi (Men's Army), but the group later denied any link to the series of false bomb threats.
Anna Bertato, the principal of a school in Milan, northern Italy, told the media on the 11th that when she looked up the email address from which the bomb threat was sent online, ``a Taiwanese university student had already reported it as spam.''
Massimo Nunzio Barella, principal of another school in Milan, told Adonkronos news agency that he immediately recognized the email as spam when it arrived at 8:59 a.m. and decided not to evacuate, reassuring parents who contacted him by phone.
Principal Barrera said, ``The writing was more like it could be called humorous.'' "I couldn't help but laugh because it sounded like a Martian saying, ``We've come to destroy you.''
Although many schools were evacuated on the 11th, the alert was quickly lifted and students were allowed to return to class. Although some parents decided to take their children home, most schools in Milan did not send students home.
According to reports in Italy, about 280 school principals have received threatening emails in the past few days.
Stefania Proietti, the governor of Umbria in central Italy, said in a statement: "The investigations carried out so far in schools in Umbria have shown that all of them are fake. Investigative authorities are quickly and carefully verifying each report."
(English article: Schools in Italy, Scotland and Northern Ireland hit by threats in suspected bomb hoax)
