300 Italian schools evacuated due to bomb threats

Authorities evacuated some 300 schools across Italy on Wednesday after receiving an emailed bomb threat, the latest disruptions affecting European institutions following hoax bomb threats against airlines and broadcasters in recent weeks.

Italian premier Giorgia Meloni said in a statement that there was no indication of any “concrete danger” to schools and said the threats appeared aimed at “generating alarm and concern”.

She said investigations were under way, and that she had convened a meeting of ministers for later in the day.

The anonymous email also contained a threat against Ms Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media including the news agency LaPresse.

She did not address the personal threat in her statement, and Ms Meloni’s office had no immediate comment.

Foreign minister Antonio Tajani revealed on Saturday that his personal data had been leaked to the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet.

Ms Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers.

Minister of education Giuseppe Valditara said 300 schools had received email threats, the news agency LaPresse reported. The ministry did not immediately return a request for confirmation.

At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students poured into the streets thinking the alarm was the break bell and only learned there was a bomb threat after they were outside.

“They are saying it was a bomb alert because an email arrived from Russian hackers in which they said they would have killed everyone. It was pretty violent,” said 18-year-old student Anita Bartocci.