Schools across Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland received threatening emails on November 11, 2026. Police in the UK and Ireland assessed the threats as not credible, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said investigators had found no evidence of a specific danger.

Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said about 6,300 of the country’s 7,476 public schools received bomb-threat emails. Private schools and adult education centres did not receive them, he said. According to Italian media reports, schools in multiple parts of the country received the same message, which claimed explosives had been placed in school buildings and in Meloni’s car. Some Italian schools closed after receiving the warning.

Police Scotland said about 1,000 schools in Scotland received a threatening email. Police in Northern Ireland said emails received by more than 300 schools there were false threats. Northern Ireland’s education department advised schools to remain open unless police recommended otherwise. In Ireland, police assessed a mass message sent to schools as not credible and said evacuations were unnecessary.

Meloni met ministers and cybersecurity officials on November 11. She said the threats appeared to be intended to cause panic, but the account did not establish who sent them. Security researcher Peter Neumann of King’s College London described the incidents as having characteristics of a hybrid attack, while analysts cautioned that attributing such threats to any one actor is extremely difficult.

Source: m.thepaper.cn (originally published 2026-11-12 09:24 UTC+8)