Police treat school bomb-threat emails as hoaxes after evacuations
Police treated threatening emails sent to about 1,000 schools in Scotland and more than 300 in Northern Ireland as hoaxes, with no credible threat reported.
How it was covered
- ITV carried 79% of the airtime and concentrated on Scale of Scottish and NI hoaxes, police reassurance and hybrid-war fears.
- BBC One concentrated on Mass hoax scale across Italy, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- Channel 5, BBC News, BBC Two and Channel 4: not found in tracked broadcasts.
- GB News and Sky News: covered online, not found on air.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Police have treated a wave of threatening emails sent to schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland as hoaxes. Around 1,000 schools in Scotland received the messages, almost half of all schools there, and more than 300 schools in Northern Ireland were targeted. Some schools were evacuated as a precaution but classes restarted after authorities assessed the emails and found no credible threat.
Police Scotland established within an hour that the Scottish emails were a hoax and had originated outside the UK, ITV reported. The force was treating the incident as a cyber crime investigation rather than a counter-terrorism one, and could not rule out a link to a previous hoax, according to ITV. Police Scotland said there was no credible threat to education establishments and no requirement to evacuate schools or keep children away, ITV reported.
The messages also reached schools in the Republic of Ireland. The BBC reported that hundreds of other schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland received similar emails. In Italy, the BBC reported that more than 6,000 schools received the hoax emails and some were evacuated, while ITV's evening bulletin said thousands of Italian schools were targeted. ITV's lunchtime bulletin had earlier reported that more than 300 schools in Italy were evacuated.
The BBC reported that the school emails appeared linked to a strategy intended to cause alarm and concern, and said it was not yet known whether they were coordinated by a foreign state or a much smaller group. ITV reported that it was the second time in a month that threats had been sent to UK schools. ITV's lunchtime bulletin said a similar hoax targeted schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland on 19 October.
The wave follows recent hoaxes against media organisations and flights across Europe. The BBC named Sky News and RTE among media outlets targeted, and said it was not yet known whether all the incidents were connected. ITV reported that after the last school hoax, attendance at some Scottish schools fell by almost 50% the following day, which it said was why police were keen to reassure parents, pupils and staff.
Graham Stoddard of ITV said the threats came amid rising fears of hybrid warfare, including cyber attacks and disinformation that stop short of open conflict. He said it was unclear who was behind the messages, whether one person, a group or state actors. European officials were reportedly looking into Russian involvement, which Moscow has denied, and Police Scotland was working with UK and international partners, ITV reported.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Reported by all 2 channels | ||
| More than 300 schools in Italy were evacuated after similar threatening messages were also treated as hoaxes. | ||
| Police Scotland reported that about 1,000 Scottish schools received a hoax email and said there was no reason for schools to be evacuated. | ||
| Police treated a threatening email sent to hundreds of schools in Northern Ireland and Scotland as a hoax, with more than 300 schools in Northern Ireland targeted. | ||
| Reports said more than 6,000 schools in Italy received hoax emails, prompting some evacuations. | ||
| Only on one channel | ||
| It was not yet known whether the school hoax emails in Scotland and Italy were connected. | Not reported by ITV | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
ITV1 led on the scale of disruption in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with its evening bulletin reporting around 1,000 Scottish schools targeted and many evacuated as a precaution. It stressed police reassurance that the emails were hoaxes, while also examining the cyber crime investigation, the second hoax in a month and wider fears of hybrid warfare and possible Russian involvement. Its lunchtime bulletin added the Italian and Republic of Ireland dimensions and the similarity to the 19 October hoax.
- “They're sent to disrupt everyday life, cause fear and alarm, and that's exactly what has happened here today.”
- “Around 1,000 schools in Scotland received these emails. That's almost half of all schools here.”
- “Police say they're treating a threatening email that was sent to hundreds of schools across Northern Ireland and Scotland as a hoax this lunchtime”
BBC ONE West gave a shorter, more scale-led account, putting the Italian figure at more than 6,000 schools and describing the emails as part of a strategy to cause alarm. It noted Police Scotland's reassurance that there was no reason to evacuate schools or keep children away, and linked the wave to earlier hoaxes against media organisations and flights.
- “around more than 6,000 schools in Italy received these hoax emails today prompting some of them to be evacuated”
- “there's no reason for the schools to be evacuated There's no reason for children to be kept away”
- “What we don't yet know as well is whether they're all connected”
Who was on air
People and organisations each channel put on air while covering this story. Channels' own presenters and reporters are not listed. Names as transcribed, and the list can miss people.
- 18:48 GMT
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.