At least 300 schools across Italy were evacuated on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, after receiving identical emailed bomb threats, in the latest wave of hoax alerts to hit Europe. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said the messages were presumed to be hoaxes and warned that the number of schools affected was expected to rise.

Schools from Rome and Milan to Naples, Potenza and the province of Udine halted lessons while police and bomb disposal teams checked the buildings. The email arrived shortly before 10am local time, according to a copy seen by Reuters, and claimed that a powerful explosive device had been left in a plastic bag and could be detonated remotely.

The message threatened to massacre Italians and claimed a bomb had been planted in the engine of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's car. It was signed "Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan". The same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent on Friday to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria.

Ministers dismiss threats as hoaxes

Valditara told the La7 television channel that the sheer number of schools targeted showed how little credibility the threat had. Prime Minister Meloni called a government security meeting at Palazzo Chigi, while Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said he would report to parliament on the incident. Italian police forces are investigating, a spokesperson for Rome police said.

Similar threatening messages were sent to schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland on the same morning. Police Scotland said the messages were immediately assessed and were being treated as hoaxes, while the Police Service of Northern Ireland said messages sent to more than 300 schools there were also being treated as a hoax.

Part of a wider wave of alerts

The scare comes amid rising concern in Europe about hybrid warfare threats, with supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and television broadcasters among the targets of recent hoax alerts. Bomb threats have also disrupted flights across Europe in recent weeks. Police are treating Wednesday's school alerts as hoaxes while investigations continue, and ministers have urged calm.