At least 300 schools in Italy evacuated after emailed bomb threats

By Euronews Published on 11 November 2026 - 12:32 GMT+1 At least 300 schools were evacuated on Wednesday across Italy after receiving bomb alerts by email. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The email also contained an explicit threat directed towards Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said the country's education minister. It began with "We have come to annihilate you. We will carry out genocide against the Italians." It spoke of a "powerful explosive device" being placed in the building with a "remote trigger". "We have placed a bomb in the engine of your prime minister's car," the email continued, and was signed with the name "Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan". Similar bomb threats received by media outlets in Ireland and Bulgaria in the past week were also sent by the purported author "Mikhail Andropov". Italian Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara said that around 300 alerts had been recorded across Italy, adding that "it is clear that there is a strategy". The content of the emails has yet to be verified, while authorities undertake security checks to guarantee the safety of students, teachers and school staff. The Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto also commented on the incident, announcing that he will report to parliament on the situation and on issues related to overall security. He also said the bomb alerts are part of a strategy of destabilisation. "It is part of a strategy that is now clear, which is to sow terror or to create concern. Any one of us could, with the means and tools that exist, send an email to a school, a nursery or an airline saying there is a bomb."