Schools in Italy, Scotland and Northern Ireland hit by threats in suspected bomb hoax

Fonte da imagem: Xinhua via Shutterstock. Legenda da imagem: Essas crianças tiveram que deixar sua escola primária em Roma como resultado de uma das ameaças enviadas na quarta-feira.

• Published11 November 2026, 12:30 GMT.
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Polícia trata e-mail ameaçador enviado a mais de 300 escolas como 'piada.

Some 6,300 schools across Italy and more than 700 in Scotland and Northern Ireland have received bomb threats, according to local authorities.

In Italy a number of buildings were evacuated as a precaution but Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks so far had not indicated any evidence of "concrete danger.

Esses relatos parecem estar bastante ligados a uma estratégia destinada a causar alarme e preocupação," ela disse no Facebook.

A secretária de Educação da Escócia, Mairi McAllan, disse que não havia risco para o público e que oficiais especializados em cibercrime estavam trabalhando para identificar a origem das mensagens.

In Northern Ireland education officials told schools to remain open unless otherwise advised by police.

It is unclear whether the incidents are connected.

Como pai e como MSP de uma circunscrição, eu entendo o quão preocupante isso será para os pais, para os alunos, para os cuidadores e para a equipe escolar, disse McAllan.

Scottish police had earlier said that the warnings were "immediately assessed" as hoaxes. However some local authorities confirmed that some schools had been evacuated.

Our advice is that there is no requirement to evacuate schools or keep children away from education based solely on the content of the emails," Police Scotland said.

Italian officials said a single email appeared to have been sent on Wednesday to the inboxes of 6,300 out of a total of 7,476 state schools, and private schools were unaffected.

A mensagem, supostamente de um certo 'Mikhail Andropov, líder do Vilayat di Misoginistan', causou alarme em muitas escolas.

The BBC has seen the email sent to Scottish schools which appeared to have similar wording, and also referenced the name Mikhail Andropov, although as leader of a "Red Owl" project.

Ministro da Educação da Itália, Giuseppe Valditara, disse que os incidentes envolvendo escolas italianas provavelmente foram um 'cyber-attack, not a genuine risk', acrescentando que parecia haver uma estratégia clara por trás da enxurrada de ameaças em toda a Europa que visavam voos, supermercados e até hospitais.

Italian airports along with airlines elsewhere in Europe were hit by a series of bomb hoaxes last week that prompted a series of scares, evacuations and widespread disruption.

Although a number of threats were claimed by an extremist misogynistic group, it later denied any link to the false warnings.

On Wednesday one Milan headteacher, Anna Bertato, told Italian media she had checked the email address of the sender online: "It was already classified as spam by a student at a university in Taiwan.

Another Milan headteacher, Massimo Nunzio Barrella, told Adnkronos news agency that he had immediately realised the email was spam when it arrived in his inbox at 08:59 and he decided not to evacuate his school and reassured parents who phoned in.

O texto parecia quase cômico," disse Barrella, "era como uma mensagem dos marcianos: 'Chegamos para aniquilá-los.' Eu até ri um pouco.

Although many schools were initially evacuated on Wednesday, the alarm was quickly lifted, and pupils were allowed to return to class. Some parents decided to take their children home for the day, but the majority of schools in Milan did not send their pupils home.

Some 280 school head teachers had already received threats in recent days, according to Italian reports.

In a statement, the head of the central Umbria region Stefania Proietti said "checks conducted so far in Umbrian schools have proved negative, and law enforcement is working rapidly and carefully to verify each report.