More than 300 schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after receiving identical bomb threat emails warning of a “genocide against the Italians”, triggering security sweeps and disrupting classes across the country.
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schools → evacuate → country
The threats were sent to educational institutions in several regions, from Rome to Friuli in the north and Basilicata in the south.
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threats → send → south
Students and staff were moved to safe areas while police searched school premises for explosives.
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police → move → explosives
The email was signed by a sender identifying himself as “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan”, according to a government source familiar with the matter.
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email → sign → matter
It claimed that a powerful explosive device with a remote detonator had been placed inside a school building and threatened to kill Italians in a mass attack.
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device → claim → attack
The message also claimed that a bomb had been planted in the engine of prime minister Giorgia Meloni's car.
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bomb → claim → car
Education minister Giuseppe Valditara told Italian broadcaster La7 that at least 300 schools had received the alerts, adding that the number could rise.
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number → tell → alerts
A school in Rome informed parents that all students had been moved to safety and were being supervised by teaching staff.
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students → inform → staff
Police are investigating the threats, a spokesperson for Rome police said.
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spokesperson → investigate → police
The latest incident comes less than 10 days after a similar barrage of threatening emails reached more than 270 Italian schools on November 2, including institutions in Rome.
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barrage → come → Rome
Those alerts also prompted evacuations and security checks, but turned out to be false.
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alerts → prompt → evacuations
Same name appears in threats targeting European institutions
The pseudonym Mikhail Andropov has also appeared in threatening emails sent in recent days to several European television broadcasters.
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pseudonym → appear → broadcasters
The sender reportedly claimed responsibility for bomb threats targeting flights, adding to a series of security scares affecting transport and public services across the continent.
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sender → claim → continent
The school alerts come amid a wider pattern of disruption in Europe, including false threats against aircraft and cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems.
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alerts → come → systems
Recent attacks on cold-storage facilities have also affected blood banks in France, forcing staff to move blood supplies to alternative storage units.
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attacks → affect → units
However, investigators have not established that the school threats, flight alerts and refrigeration attacks are connected or part of a coordinated campaign.
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threats → establish → campaign
Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto described the school threats as an attempt to spread fear and uncertainty.
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Crosetto → describe → fear
He said law enforcement agencies were working to distinguish genuine dangers from threats made by people seeking to cause disruption, warning that such incidents could become increasingly frequent.
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incidents → say → disruption
The interior ministry has also stepped up its response.
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ministry → step → response
Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi convened senior security officials on Tuesday to discuss the growing cyber threat.
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Piantedosi → convene → threat
The meeting concluded that some attacks were aimed not simply at disrupting systems but at spreading unfounded alarm, destabilising institutions and damaging their credibility.
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attacks → conclude → credibility
Former interior minister Marco Minniti called for a dedicated intelligence capability focused on cyber security, arguing that the threat required cooperation across political lines and should be treated as a matter of national security.
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threat → call → security
The Aporia
