By Alvise Armellini and Giuseppe Fonte
ROME, Nov 11 (Reuters) – More than 300 schools in Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after hoax bomb alerts in several European nations, the latest in a series of threats and cyberattacks on supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and TV broadcasters.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland said many of their schools also received a similar email threat from abroad but it was quickly classed as a hoax and did not disrupt classes.
In Italy, many parents had to drop what they were doing and hurry to the school gates to collect children.
“My daughter Dafne started crying because the kids did not understand what was happening, and she was still shaken when I picked her up,” said Nensi Bego, parent of a child at the Mazzini middle school in Rome.
“This is so annoying. It’s obvious it’s just a hoax that disrupts lessons and disrupts everyone’s day.”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the bomb alerts posed no danger and that police and other public bodies were monitoring the situation.
“All students have been taken to a safe area and remain under the supervision of teaching staff,” one school in Rome informed parents through a messaging app.
The email received in Italy was signed “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan,” according to a copy of the message seen by Reuters.
The same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent on Friday to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria.
RUSSIA AND IRAN DENY ACCUSATIONS
Some European officials suspect Russia may be behind a campaign of disruption to everyday life in European nations supporting Ukraine after Moscow’s invasion. Russia denies that and accuses the West of a smear campaign.
Iran is another suspect. France summoned Iran’s ambassador on Tuesday after accusing Tehran of a cyberattack that disabled refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets last week.
Iran rejected those accusations as “baseless and hostile”.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said Wednesday’s threats were “part of a strategy that is quite clear by now: to spread fear and create anxiety,” according to Adnkronos news agency.
“It is not always the work of foreign countries or hostile entities. There are also attention-seekers and lunatics who, at a time like this, cannot wait to unleash terror in a city or a region,” he added.
Antonello Giannelli, head of the Italian School Principals Association, said the alerts were upsetting for students, families and school staff.
“Even though today’s threats are clearly hoaxes, we cannot underestimate the consequences of incidents that alarm entire school communities and disrupt the normal conduct of educational activities,” he said.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, Giselda Vagnoni and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Sarah Young and Michael Holden in London, Writing by Keith Weir, Editing by Gavin Jones and Andrew Cawthorne)
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