Mass false bomb threats disrupt schools in Bulgaria, prompt terrorism probe
Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office said on March 28 that it had initiated pre-trial proceedings in connection with terrorism charges following two consecutive days of e-mailed bomb threats to schools in Sofia and other cities.
The Interior Ministry said on March 28 that so far, 102 schools in Bulgaria had received bomb threats.
Several schools were evacuated on March 27 and 28 in response to the threats.
The threats were reported to have come from an “organisation calling itself Free Misanthropic Unabombers Legion” with an IP address in Russia.
Caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said that the main theory about the e-mailed threats were that they were hybrid attacks linked to Russia.
Security services in the United States and elsewhere in Europe had been contacted to trace the source of the threats, he said.
Demerdzhiev said that he would convene an interdepartmental working group on March 28 to review the protocol for responding to bomb threats.
The incidents come in the week of Bulgaria’s April 2 early parliamentary elections, in which – as is customary in Bulgaria – many schools will be used as polling stations.
Interior Ministry chief secretary Petar Todorov told reporters on March 28 that there was no risk of the bomb threats disrupting the elections.
Todorov said that a special reaction procedure would be created for the elections in the event of bomb threats being received.
(Photo: freepik)
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