Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni convened opposition leaders Thursday to address school security after a second day of emailed bomb threats disrupted classes and prompted families to collect children in Italy.
The government counted more than 1,800 schools among Thursday’s recipients. It put the previous day’s comparable total at about 6,300. Many schools closed after receiving the latest messages; families went to collect children, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported.
Wednesday’s earlier round had prompted evacuations at about 300 Italian schools, EconoTimes reported.
Italy’s Ansa news agency reported that the emails carried the name “Mikhail Andropov,” who described himself as leader of the “Vilayat of Misoginistan.” The same purported sender claimed responsibility for emails sent the previous week to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria, Ansa reported.
The alerts came amid broader European concern about hybrid threats, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. Opposition parties accused Meloni of favoring conventional military spending over cyber defenses. Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein said her party wants cybersecurity bodies to coordinate more closely and has proposed redirecting some available resources toward cyber defenses.
Meloni’s office said it would instruct schools not to evacuate based on a mass email alone. It said other concrete signs would need to suggest a genuine danger.
