What happened on Wednesday

On Wednesday 11 November 2026, hoax bomb threats were sent to schools in three countries on the same day. At least 6,000 schools in Italy received the message, and more than 700 schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland were sent similar threats. Schools in the Republic of Ireland received a similar message too. Some schools evacuated their buildings as a precaution. Within hours, police and education officials in each country said the threats were not credible, and most pupils were back in class before the end of the day.

The figures were still being counted during the day, and the reports did not agree on them. The BBC reported more than 700 schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while the Guardian reported about 1,000 schools across Scotland and at least 300 in Northern Ireland. In Italy, the Guardian reported about 6,000 schools, while Italian officials said a single email had gone to 6,300 of the country's 7,476 state schools, and that private schools were not affected. This article uses the lower figures.

Some schools in Edinburgh were briefly evacuated as a precaution on Wednesday morning. In Dumfries and Galloway, children were sent home after most schools in the area received the messages. Some schools in the Highlands activated their emergency procedures. In Italy, hundreds of schools were evacuated. In most cases the alarm was lifted quickly, and pupils returned to lessons.

What hoax bomb threats mean for schools

A hoax bomb threat is a message that claims a bomb has been planted, when no bomb exists. The message is usually sent by email, often to a long list of addresses at once. The aim is not to cause an explosion. It is to cause fear, disruption and a large emergency response. A school that receives one has to decide, in minutes, whether to evacuate, whether to call the police, and what to tell parents. That decision is hard to get right, because the cost of ignoring a real threat is so high, and the cost of evacuating for a hoax is also real: lost lessons, frightened children, and parents leaving work to collect them. A hoax is not a drill, and it is not harmless: even when no bomb exists, the disruption is real.

What police and governments said

Police Scotland said its inquiries had established that there was nothing to suggest the threats represented a credible threat, or that there was any wider threat to the public. Its advice was that there was no requirement to evacuate schools, or to keep children away from education, based solely on the content of the emails. Its cyber and fraud unit is working with law enforcement in the United Kingdom and overseas to find who was responsible.

Scotland's education secretary, Mairi McAllan, said there was no risk to the public, and that specialist cyber-crime officers were working to identify the source of the messages. She said she understood how concerning the messages would be for parents, pupils, carers and school staff.

In Northern Ireland, education officials advised schools to remain open unless otherwise advised by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally said the police took incidents of this nature very seriously, and that at that stage the risk to the public was considered low. In the Republic of Ireland, the Garda Siochana said it had assessed the threat as not credible, and had not called for any evacuations.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said checks so far had not indicated any evidence of what she called "concrete danger", and that the reports appeared to be linked to a strategy intended to cause alarm and concern. Italy's education minister, Giuseppe Valditara, said the incidents were probably a cyber-attack rather than a genuine risk. The head of Italy's national association of headteachers, Antonello Giannelli, called the threat "clearly fake".

What schools and parents should do

The advice given on Wednesday was consistent, and it is worth keeping for the next time a threat like this arrives. First, do not assume a threat is real just because it names your school. Mass emails go to hundreds or thousands of addresses at once, and the message is often generic. Second, follow the instructions of the police and your school, not the instructions in the threatening message. In Scotland, police said schools should not evacuate on the basis of the email alone. In Northern Ireland, schools were told to stay open unless the police said otherwise.

For parents, the most useful step is to wait for the school's own message before travelling to collect a child. Schools that evacuated on Wednesday told parents directly, and most pupils were readmitted quickly. Collecting a child without being asked can add to congestion around a school, and can make it harder for the police to do their checks. For schools, the lesson of Wednesday is to have a plan that separates the message from the response: a threat should be reported to the police at once, and the police assessment should guide the decision to evacuate. Glasgow's council told parents by email that the claims were false and that schools should not be evacuated. The difference between the responses in different areas shows how much depends on getting the police assessment to schools quickly.

Why hoaxes like this keep happening

Wednesday was not the first time schools have received threats like this. Similar hoax threats were sent to schools last month, and the BBC reported that some of the threats were claimed by an extremist group, which later denied any link to the false warnings. Last week, Italian airports and airlines elsewhere in Europe were hit by a series of bomb hoaxes that caused scares, evacuations and disruption.

The pattern is the same each time: one message, sent to a long list of addresses, produces a large response for very little effort. Email makes that cheap. A single sender can reach thousands of schools in minutes, and each school must then spend time and attention on the message. It is not yet known who sent Wednesday's messages, and it is unclear whether the incidents in the three countries are connected. No one has been publicly identified as responsible.

What our records show, and what they miss

Our records are built from official warnings and confirmed reports, and a hoax is a difficult thing to record. The event is real: thousands of schools received a threat, and some evacuated. But there was no bomb, and no one was hurt. A record of a hoax needs to carry both of those facts at once, so that a reader does not mistake a threat for an attack. See today's incidents for the latest verified records, and the live map for where incidents are being reported.

Readers who want background should read the other articles on this site, including our reports on the Kulgam CRPF checkpoint attack and the Mir Ali IED hideouts in North Waziristan, and check today's incidents for updates.

The short version

  • Hoax bomb threats were sent on Wednesday 11 November 2026 to at least 6,000 schools in Italy and more than 700 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
  • Some schools evacuated as a precaution, but police in all three countries said the threats were not credible.
  • Police Scotland said there was no requirement to evacuate schools or keep children away based solely on the emails.
  • No one has been identified as responsible, and it is unclear whether the incidents in the three countries are connected.
  • Schools were told to stay open, readmit evacuated pupils and resume classes.