Around 300 schools across Northern Ireland received threatening emails on Monday, October 19, prompting precautionary evacuations and police investigations. The messages reportedly threatened to bring Sharia law to the country and claimed that explosive devices had been planted inside school premises.
Northern Ireland Education Minister Paul Givan said the email referred to Islamist threats and ended with the words “Allah Akbar”. Speaking at Stormont, Givan said the messages had caused serious alarm, although authorities were not treating them as a credible threat at that stage.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was notified, while the Education Authority held an emergency meeting with police to coordinate the response.
Police investigate emails as a hoax
A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that police were investigating the threatening messages, which reportedly contained a general threat and had been received by up to 300 schools.
Police said the email had originated outside the United Kingdom. Initial searches and checks found no suspicious items on school premises. Based on the information available, authorities were treating the messages as a hoax.
The Northern Ireland Education Authority also confirmed that it was in contact with affected schools to help manage the situation.
Around 400 children evacuated from school
The threats prompted precautionary evacuations at several schools. Stephen Baine, head teacher of St Colman’s Primary School in Lambeg, said he received an email at around 8:50 am claiming that an explosive device had been placed somewhere on the school premises. The message also threatened repeated attacks across the country.
Baine said around 400 pupils were evacuated after he was advised to treat the situation as a worst-case scenario. Police and the Education Authority later informed schools that the threats were being treated as a hoax.
Scottish schools also receive threatening emails
Several schools in Scotland received similar messages, prompting police investigations and precautionary measures. Police Scotland also treated the threats as hoaxes.
Glasgow City Council said it was aware of threatening emails received by 148 schools in its area and some neighbouring local authorities. Some schools were evacuated on Monday morning, but pupils later returned to their classrooms.
In Edinburgh, schools had not reopened after the October break. Staff who had arrived for an in-service day were asked to return home. Schools in the Scottish Borders also reported receiving a threat.
North Lanarkshire Council said it was working closely with Police Scotland and that schools had procedures in place to respond to such incidents.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton called for authorities to share information promptly and keep schools, parents and children informed.
Hungary and Serbia report similar bomb threats
The threatening messages appeared to extend beyond the United Kingdom. In Hungary, an email claimed that bombs had been planted in more than 70 schools, prompting evacuations. Officials later reported that no explosives had been found.
Hungarian Interior Minister Gabor Posfai said an investigation had found the threats received that morning to be unfounded.
In neighbouring Serbia, state broadcaster RTS reported that more than 100 schools had also received bomb threats.
Cybersecurity expert raises possibility of AI use
Cybersecurity expert Jake Moore said the emails appeared to have been sent using an artificial intelligence (AI) agent. He explained that publicly available school email addresses and inexpensive software could be used to distribute threatening messages to large numbers of institutions.
Moore said such an operation could generate widespread fear with relatively little effort. He suggested that the sender might have been testing software and examining its impact, although the method used to send the emails has not been confirmed.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the origin of the messages and the circumstances surrounding the threats.
