Thousands of schools across Europe were targeted by emailed bomb threats this week, forcing evacuations and adding to a wave of disruption that has grounded flights and seen supermarket freezers hacked.
In Italy, 6,000 schools received bomb alerts, according to the Education Ministry, with a sizable number sending children home. Hundreds more schools in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland received similar warnings. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chaired an emergency government meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
The threats follow a week in which bomb scares disrupted flights and media outlets across the continent. Last Friday, sporadic bomb threats disrupted multiple flights; Hungary scrambled fighter jets three times in one day because of threats, while in France there were four bomb threats against aircraft crossing the country's airspace.
The school threats are the latest in a series of incidents European officials have linked to hybrid attacks. Supermarkets in at least 12 European countries were hit by cyberattacks in October and November, with France the worst affected, and France has blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guard for cyberattacks that crippled fridges and freezers in large grocery stores. Meloni's government has blamed pro-Russian hackers for other cyberattacks, including one targeting Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
The EU's cyber chief told AFP on Tuesday that home appliances could be next, urging Europe to invest more to counter the growing cyber threat. Authorities are treating the school threats as suspected hoaxes.
