Bomb threat emails hit 1,803 more Italian schools a day after 6,300

On Thursday, Italian authorities put the number of schools sent emailed bomb threats at 1,803, marking a second straight day of mass threats against the country's education system. The Times of Israel reported that the new wave followed Wednesday, when roughly 6,300 schools received similar messages and were emptied of pupils and staff across the country.

The Israeli news site Ynet put Thursday's figure at about 1,800 institutions and reported that, in parallel, a bomb alert disrupted rail traffic between London and Paris, with trains brought to a halt in France. A third Israeli outlet, News.co.il, reported on its Telegram channel that dozens of Italian schools were evacuated again on Thursday, that police and bomb disposal teams were called to carry out wide searches, and that thousands of students and staff were moved out as a precaution.

Two days of disruption in Italian schools

According to The Times of Israel, many schools shut their doors as soon as the warnings arrived, and parents hurried to pick up their children while worry spread on social media. A photograph distributed by the AFP news agency showed pupils from the Ennio Quirino Visconti school in Rome gathered near Trajan's Forum, an ancient Roman site in the city centre, after their building was cleared during an alert on November 11, 2026.

The figures differ slightly between reports. The Times of Israel cited the government's count of 1,803 schools for Thursday, while Ynet rounded it to about 1,800. News.co.il described dozens of evacuations on Thursday rather than thousands; the reports do not make clear whether that figure refers to all schools cleared that day or only those it was tracking. Being sent a threat and being evacuated are also not the same thing, and the reports do not say how many of the targeted schools actually emptied their classrooms.

News.co.il said Italian authorities were examining where the threats came from and whether they were connected to a run of similar alerts reported across the country in recent days.

A change in how Italy responds

The Italian government said it would bring in new procedures for dealing with security alerts, including mass threat emails, The Times of Israel reported. Under the new approach, buildings would as a rule stay open unless there is concrete evidence of a threat. Ynet described the shift as a change ordered by Prime Minister Meloni, instructing that schools should not be cleared without a real cause for concern.

The decision touches on a practical problem for any authority facing hoax threats sent in bulk: each evacuation costs teaching time and alarms families, yet ignoring a threat carries its own risk. Italy's new guidance moves the default toward keeping pupils in place.

Ynet reported that the opposition in Italy attacked the government's handling of the episode, quoting a critic as saying the problem could have been dealt with using a good antivirus programme. The report did not name the opposition figure who made the remark.

Part of a wider pattern across Europe

The Times of Israel placed the Italian emails within a broader series of hoaxes and cyberattacks that it said had recently hit targets across Europe, among them schools, supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic systems and broadcasters. The rail alert on the London to Paris route, as described by Ynet, adds transport to that list. That line runs through the Channel Tunnel and links the British and French capitals.

Ynet reported suspicion of Russian involvement in the threats. It also reported that President Macron of France urged caution, saying it was still too early to determine who was responsible. None of the three reports set out evidence pointing to any particular state or group, and no government is reported to have formally attributed the threats.

What the reports do not say

• Who sent the emails, and whether the Italian school threats and the French rail alert are linked, has not been established in any of the reports.
• The suspicion of Russian involvement is reported only by Ynet, without detail on who holds that suspicion or on what basis.
• No report says whether any explosive device was found at any school or on the rail line.
• How long the London to Paris trains were halted, and how many passengers were affected, is not stated.
• The new Italian procedures have been announced in outline, but the reports do not say when they take effect or who decides what counts as concrete evidence of danger.