Bomb alert in around 300 Italian schools today, 11 November: no injuries reported, but as a precaution, students were evacuated in many Italian cities, from Rome to Milan, up to Naples and Potenza. The nature of the reports is not yet clear, but they could be part of a cyber attack against the Italian school system.
Bomb alert in hundreds of Italian schools today, November 11th: from Milan to Rome, passing through Naples, Potenza and Venicenumerous institutions have received a anonymous email which announced the presence of explosive devices in buildingstriggering the evacuation precautionary of students and staff. At the moment, however, there are no injuries and checks and possible clean-ups by the police are underway, with the intervention of the police, carabinieri and bomb squad in the reported schools.
The message arrived in institutional inboxes just before 10:00 and, according to what has been reconstructed, it is identical in all the institutes involved: to sign it would be “Mikhail Andropov”, who calls himself “leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan”.
In the text of the email the author claims to have left «inside a plastic baga powerful explosive device with remote trigger”, adding explicit death threats towards students and staff, “we have come to destroy you».
The message also contains a direct threat to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloniwhich however is not specifically mentioned, but indicated with a more generic “we have placed a bomb in the engine of your prime minister’s car”. The President has organized an emergency meeting for today, at 4 pm, in which the two deputy prime ministers will participate Antonio Tajani And Matteo Salvinithe Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and that of Defense, Guido Crosettothe undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano and the leaders of intelligence andNational Cybersecurity Agency (ACN).
The nature of the threat, at the moment, remains to be clarified: given the common matrix of the reports, i.e. the same text delivered at the same time to a large number of institutions, the investigators’ suspicion is that it could be a new cyber attack towards the Italian school system, rather than a real threat.
As he explained to Geopop Alessandro Marroneexpert from the Institute of International Affairs, bomb alerts they are gods new types of hybrid attacks which cause in the population a perception of insecurity, Of disorientation and mistrust in institutions. As with the bomb threats in recent weeks against some flights, the reports they then revealed themselves falsebut they still led to the activation of safety procedures and controls which entailed a cost not only for the operators, but also and above all for the public perception of insecurity.
Today’s alarms followed the same patterns in many cities: in general, the map of reports (certainly destined to expand in the next few hours with the arrival of new news), goes from Friuli-Venezia Giulia to Campania and from Po Valley to Sicilyconfirming the national and coordinated nature of the dispatch.
According to what was communicated by the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditaraspoke at The Air That Pulls on La7, they would be at least 300 bomb alerts taken in schools throughout Italy: the Minister asked to Don’t create alarmism «because it is clear from the content of the e-mail that the concrete risk it’s almost non-existent: it is a cyber attacknot of a real risk in all likelihood, but the strategy must be designed involving the Services”.
Despite being a small part of the over 63,000 Italian institutions, the schools involved have suffered evacuations and suspension of lessons, with strong repercussions on school organization and, above all, on fears for the safety of students, teachers and staff.
The provinces in which, based on the reports that have emerged so far, there have been bomb scares linked to the anonymous email are:
- Trieste;
- Padua;
- Venice;
- Brescia;
- Milan;
- Turin;
- Bologna;
- Modena;
- Rieti;
- Rome;
- Frosinone;
- Naples;
- Power;
- Ragusa;
- Syracuse.
The list is partial and in progress: other provinces are being added while law enforcement checks continue.
