Hoax bomb threats reach schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Italy
About 1,000 schools in Scotland received hoax bomb warnings on November 11, 2026, according to Police Scotland. The messages reached schools from Dumfries in the south to Aberdeenshire and Orkney in the north. A hoax is a false alarm, and in this case the warnings claimed that explosive devices had been placed in buildings.
The threats were not limited to Scotland. At least 300 schools in Northern Ireland were affected on the same day. Schools in the Republic of Ireland received similar bomb-threat claims in a generic communication. In Italy, about 6,000 schools received an email containing a hoax bomb threat, according to the country's education ministry, and hundreds of them were reported to have been evacuated.
Police Scotland assessed the emails as not representing a credible threat. It said that, based solely on the emails, there was no requirement to evacuate schools or keep children away. The force's cyber and fraud unit is working with security and law enforcement bodies in the UK and overseas to establish who was responsible.
Responses varied from place to place. Dumfries and Galloway council confirmed that children were sent home after a majority of its schools received the messages. Schools in Edinburgh were briefly evacuated as a precaution on the morning of November 11. Glasgow council told parents that the claims of devices planted in schools were false and that schools should not be evacuated.
In Italy, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said checks carried out so far showed no element suggesting a concrete danger from the emails. In Northern Ireland, education officials advised schools to stay open unless the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the territory's police force, advised otherwise.
Northern Ireland's education minister, Paul Givan, said that hoaxes sent to schools the previous month appeared to be Islamist and were signed "Allahu Akbar". Police Scotland published an update on the hoax messages from Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland, and the investigation into who sent them is continuing.
