Italy bomb threat hits 6,000 schools, most keep students inside

A bomb threat email reached about 6,000 schools across Italy on Wednesday morning, 11 November 2026, shortly before 9 a.m. The message, attributed to Mikhail Andropov, claimed a powerful remote-controlled explosive had been left in a plastic bag inside a school building and threatened genocide against Italians.

Most schools in Bergamo chose not to evacuate after consulting school authorities, the Carabinieri commander, and the police headquarters. Only the Natta institute and the Belotti institute in Colognola ordered students to leave the buildings.

“A simple threatening email, sent simultaneously to thousands of recipients, is not enough to make the evacuation of a building necessary.”

Patrizia Giaveri, head of the Vittorio Emanuele institute, said her school received the email later than others and had already recognized the nature of the communication. She explained that school directors compared notes and received feedback from the regional school office and law enforcement.

The government clarified on Thursday, 12 November, that a generic emailed threat sent to thousands of recipients is not enough to require evacuation unless further concrete evidence of real danger emerges. The statement came after a day of fear and chaos in Italian schools.

Palazzo Chigi announced that an interministerial committee for republic security would meet on Thursday afternoon at a technical level to define a common operational protocol for handling bomb alerts. The protocol is already operational and applies to all administrations.

The government said the goal is to ensure a coordinated response and prevent the same threat from producing very different reactions across territories. Thousands of students, teachers, and school staff had been evacuated from schools in numerous Italian cities on Wednesday.