Hundreds of Italian schools hit by bomb threats in suspected hoax wave

Around 300 schools across Italy received bomb threats on Wednesday, prompting precautionary evacuations in several cities and a rapid response from national authorities. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the incidents were probably part of a cyber-attack rather than a genuine security risk. Officials said the threats affected schools in Rome, Naples, Vicenza, Florence, Pisa, Trieste and other cities.

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Valditara said there appeared to be a clear strategy behind the wave of threats in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. He told Italian television that the messages were part of a broader pattern that had also targeted flights, supermarkets and hospitals. Italian reports said about 280 school head teachers had received threats in recent days, suggesting the scale of the disruption was wider than the initial evacuations alone.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a meeting of top ministers and intelligence chiefs to review the situation. She said the government was monitoring the "numerous reports of bomb threats at educational institutions" and that checks so far had not indicated any evidence of concrete danger. In a statement from the central Umbria region, Stefania Proietti said checks in local schools had proved negative and that law enforcement was working quickly and carefully to verify each report.

The incident matters because it disrupted education across a large part of the country and drew in senior government and security officials. Even where threats proved false, the need to evacuate buildings and carry out checks created immediate disruption for pupils, teachers and families. The episode also comes amid a wider run of bomb hoaxes affecting other European targets, adding to concern about coordinated alarm campaigns.

Italian airports and airlines elsewhere in Europe were hit by a series of bomb hoaxes last week that caused scares, evacuations and widespread disruption. Some of those threats were claimed by an extremist misogynistic group, which later denied any link to the false warnings. Authorities have not said whether the school threats are connected to those earlier incidents, and officials have not identified who is behind the messages.

What remains unclear is whether the school threats in Italy form part of the same wider campaign seen elsewhere in Europe or represent a separate operation. Police and intelligence services are continuing to examine the emails and the pattern of reports, while schools that were evacuated have in many cases already reopened after checks. The main question now is whether investigators can identify the source of the messages and determine if further threats are likely.

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