A series of emails containing bomb threats was sent on Wednesday, November 11 to schools in various parts of Italy, including Sardinia. The messages triggered security procedures and, at some schools, the precautionary evacuation of students and staff.

The Sardinian locations affected included Cagliari and Iglesias; reports and response measures were also reported in Sestu, Nuoro, Villasimius, Castiadas and Selargius. News reports also said that messages had reached schools in the Sassari area. The list of affected sites was updated throughout the morning.

In Sestu, the comprehensive school ordered the precautionary evacuation of its campuses and asked families to collect their children. Similar measures were taken in other towns: in Iglesias, Nuoro and several locations in the Cagliari area, students and teachers were escorted outside the buildings while inspections got underway.

The message, signed Mikhail Andropov, presented itself as the work of the leader of the so-called Vilayat of Misoginistan. It announced that an explosive device was present in school buildings and contained threats of violence against students and staff, as well as references to an alleged attack on the Prime Minister’s car. The same pseudonym had appeared in previous threatening messages.

According to accounts reported by news outlets, the emails were sent shortly before 10 a.m. from an address associated with a Taiwanese university domain. The text described an explosive device placed in a plastic bag with a remote-controlled trigger. Law enforcement carried out inspections at the schools; bomb disposal experts and the Postal Police were also involved in some operations.

The number of schools reached grew as reports came in: the first account put the figure at 94 schools, while in the following hours Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara cited an estimate of around 300 schools across Italy. The figure, given while checks were still underway, therefore reflected a nationwide situation that was still evolving.

At 12:20 p.m., Valditara said that, according to the information available at the time, there was no concrete risk and suggested a cyberattack as a possibility. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto urged people to bear in mind that, alongside any organized actions, incidents of this kind can also be caused by attention-seekers. Schools applied the precautionary measures prescribed for each report.