Hundreds of schools across the United Kingdom opened on Monday to the same emailed bomb threat, a message claiming explosive devices had been planted in school buildings and demanding that Sharia law be brought into the country. Police in Northern Ireland and Scotland are treating the emails as a hoax sent from outside the UK, but not before a morning of closures, evacuations and alarm for pupils, parents and staff. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said up to 300 schools had reported receiving the same message, which it described as a generalised threat; Education Minister Paul Givan, who earlier put the figure at about 160 schools, described the email at Stormont.
"It would appear to me from Islamists threatening that Sharia law will be brought into our country and that there is viable devices within those school settings, and it was signed off 'Allahu Akbar.'" — Education Minister Paul Givan
The PSNI said its checks and enquiries had found nothing untoward at any school, confirmed the email originated from outside the United Kingdom, and said similar emails are believed to have been received by some schools elsewhere in the UK. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said: "Our enquiries are ongoing, however, at this stage we consider risk to the public as low." He added that police "understand the concern in the community, not to mention the disruption it has caused in some school communities and for students and parents," and that officers would keep working with schools, the Department of Education and the Education Authority to provide reassurance. A number of Northern Ireland schools closed for the morning after receiving the message through their formal communication channels. At St Colman's Primary School in Lambeg, principal Stephen Baine said the threat arrived at about 8:50 a.m., police advised the school to treat it as a worst-case scenario, and its 400 pupils were evacuated and collected by parents within the hour.
Scotland was hit the same way. Police Scotland said threatening messages had been sent to a number of schools across the country, that they were being treated as a hoax, and that officers were investigating; some schools around Glasgow were evacuated on Monday morning and have since reopened, and the Scottish Government confirmed it had been informed.
Givan condemned the stunt and told schools to carry on. "I want to absolutely condemn the actions of those who sought to disrupt our education system today by issuing threatening emails to our schools," he said in a statement. "I want to reassure schools that following checks, the PSNI has not found anything untoward at this time. Schools should continue to operate as normal." Whoever sent the emails has not been identified, and nothing made public so far establishes who was behind them; what police in two parts of the UK are agreed on is that the threat was not real, even if the disruption was.
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