Italian schools have faced bomb threats for a second consecutive day, prompting renewed evacuations and heightened anxiety.
Approximately 1,800 schools spanning from Milan in the north to Sicily in the south reported receiving threats similar to those that caused widespread disruption on Wednesday, despite no actual devices being discovered.
The Italian government has instructed schools that, without concrete evidence beyond a mass‑email warning of danger, they should refrain from evacuating the premises.
Schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland also received threats on Wednesday, and it remains uncertain whether these incidents are linked.
A bomb alert at a Calais rail station on Thursday morning disrupted both international and domestic train services in northern France.
These events follow a wave of bomb hoaxes targeting airports and airlines across several European nations last week.
While some threats were initially attributed to an extremist misogynistic group, the organization later denied any involvement.
The Wednesday email threat, sent to 6,300 of the 7,476 Italian state schools, was purportedly signed by Mikhail Andropov, identified as the leader of Vilayat di Misoginistan.
Some officials suggested the origin of the message may lie in Taiwan.
A similar message sent to Italian schools on Thursday, also bearing Mikhail Andropov’s name, appears to have originated from a hacked teacher’s account in the Philippines.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the situation as part of a strategy designed to generate alarm and concern.
