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At least 300 schools in Italy were evacuated on Wednesday after receiving identical bomb threat messages. This comes amid growing concern in Europe about hybrid threats targeting supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic control systems and broadcasters.
Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told La7 television that the threats appeared to be false and the number of schools receiving such messages was likely to increase. According to him, the mass nature of the mailing “indicates how unreliable this threat is.”
Rome police said they were investigating the incident.
“Due to a nationwide alert due to a bomb threat, we inform you that all students have been evacuated to a safe place and are under the supervision of teachers,” one of the Roman schools wrote to parents, reports Reuters.
The agency has reviewed a copy of the threatening email, which was signed by “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Mizoginistan Wilayat.” The same name was signed on threatening letters sent on Friday to media editors in Ireland and Bulgaria.
A wave of reports of mining attacks swept across Europe last week. Dozens of flights have been threatened since Monday, with some planes diverting and landing at other airports and several countries scrambling fighter jets to escort them.
On Friday, November 6, threats were made against flights of Ryanair, Wizz Air, KLM and other airlines flying to different cities in Europe. After landing, all the planes were inspected by specialists; nothing dangerous was found on any of them.
By the end of the week, media outlets also received reports of mining.
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It is unclear who is behind the mailing. In emails received by some Italian organizations, the senders described themselves as "fighters of the 'Male State'" and representatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The telegram channel of the founder of the “Male State” Vladislav Pozdnyakov “Pozdnyakov 3.0” denied involvement in the threats. The movement was declared extremist and banned in Russia in 2021.
In a statement released on November 5, the channel's authors argued that people sending bomb threats on behalf of the movement were acting "in their own interests, simply using someone else's flag." According to them, Pozdnyakov has not had anything to do with the “Male State” since 2019, and since 2021 the movement does not exist at all.
The BBC sent a question about the movement’s involvement in threats to the “Vlad” telegram account, indicated in the description of the “Pozdnyakov 3.0” channel.
There, in response, the BBC wrote: “What kind of male state? It hasn’t existed for many years.” This correspondence between “Vlad” and the BBC correspondent was soon published by the Pozdnyakov 3.0 channel.
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