School Bomb Alerts, Day Two: 77 Evacuations After Thousands of Emails, and the Prefect Becomes the Rule
According to Sky TG24 the new emails signed 'Mikhail Andropov' reached 3,778 schools, with 77 evacuations; the government has asked schools not to empty on the sole basis of the emails and to leave each decision to the Prefects.
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For the second day running Italian schools received emails with bomb threats, signed 'Mikhail Andropov': according to Sky TG24 the new wave reached 3,778 institutions and led to 77 evacuations, in 36 of which lessons resumed the same morning. In the evening the government changed tack: the two ministries told Prefects and headteachers that activity must carry on normally, except for 'specific and well-founded alarm reasons' assessed by the Prefect. Rome's public prosecutor's office, coordinated by chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, is investigating the offences of false alarm and aggravated threats.
Second day of bomb alerts in Italian schools. Sky TG24 reports it on the evening of November 12: the new emails, again signed by the self-styled 'Mikhail Andropov', reached 3,778 schools across many regions, from Milan to Palermo, and the evacuations ordered were 77; in 36 of those institutions lessons resumed the same morning. It is the same picture set out in TG LA7's liveblog, which reports the 77 evacuated buildings and the 36 where classes restarted 'shortly afterwards'.
What changed on day two
The real novelty is not the number of emails, but the rule the government gave schools. Government sources quoted by Sky TG24 explain that the interior and education ministers 'immediately' told Prefects and headteachers that activity must carry on normally, 'unless — according to the assessment each Prefect makes locally — there are specific and well-founded alarm reasons'. According to TG LA7, headteachers and prefects were asked not to order evacuations on the sole basis of mass emails, while the Prefect keeps the power to act when in possession of 'specific and concrete evidence'.
That instruction comes after the morning's evacuations: as the same government source points out, some headteachers decided to empty their buildings right after the emails arrived, and before receiving the ministers' message. One point must stay firm: no evacuation has been certified as a mistake, and no headteacher is under accusation. The mechanism changed while it was running.
The investigation
On the judicial front, prosecutors from Rome's anti-terrorism team are investigating: the case, coordinated by chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, examines the offences of false alarm and aggravated threats, Sky TG24 writes. As of the evening of November 12 there is no named suspect, and this piece does not invent one: the investigation is open and concerns whoever sent the emails.
On the technical side the two outlets agree on the traces collected: the messages came from several compromised addresses, some with Philippine domains, traced — according to the sources' account — to hacked teachers' mailboxes. The possible explanations remain hypotheses, not conclusions: building a database of schools to target, using automated tools, or buying credentials on the dark web.
The protocol and its limits
In the evening the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic met, and Palazzo Chigi called a technical meeting for the following day. In practice, from tomorrow the rule for families is this: if a school receives a threatening email, evacuation is not automatic, and the Prefect decides on concrete evidence. In recent days the network has covered the first day of the alerts, with the figures of that day and, among local services, the school strike of November 20.