- Hundreds of schools across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland received threatening emails on Wednesday.
- Police dismissed the messages as hoaxes and advised against evacuations, though some Scottish schools were sent home.
- Northern Irish police said the emails originated outside the UK and assessed the public risk as low.
- The messages resemble recent false bomb threats to media and flights, sometimes signed by a radical group name; any link is unconfirmed.
Police in Britain and Ireland were Wednesday investigating threatening emails sent to hundreds of schools, but urged teachers not to evacuate their premises as they dismissed the messages as hoaxes.
The emails come after similar threats last week targeted media in Britain and Ireland and flights from the UK and Europe.
Schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland were all targeted, with Police Scotland saying in a statement that while “distressing” there was “nothing to suggest that they represent a credible threat”.
The police force said “our advice is that there is no requirement to evacuate schools”, but The Herald newspaper reported several Scottish schools had been evacuated, with pupils sent home.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland also said they were “treating the matter as a hoax” after the emails “which contained a threat” were sent to over 300 schools in the region.
The Northern Irish police said the email “originated from outside the UK”.
Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally said the Northern Irish police “take incidents of this nature very seriously” but “we consider the risk to the public as low”.
Police in Ireland said a “generic communication” was sent to schools, saying it was “not credible” and police were “not advising any educational establishment to evacuate”.
Ireland is mounting the largest security operation in its history as it hosts a meeting of European leaders this week.
News outlets in both Scotland and Northern Ireland reported the emails resembled hoax bomb claims sent to British and Irish media including Sky News and RTE on Friday.
Last week dozens of flights in Europe were also targeted by false bomb threats, some in emails signed by “fighters of the Male State”, which matches the name of a radical misogynist group in Russia — though AFP has not confirmed any link to the messages.
