On 11 November 2026, hundreds of schools in Northern Ireland and Scotland received identical emails containing bomb threats. According to police, more than 300 schools in Northern Ireland and around 470 in Scotland were affected — nearly 800 institutions in total.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Police Scotland immediately classified the messages as a hoax. In their assessment, the emails do not represent a credible threat, and there are no grounds for mass evacuations. Police said the emails originated from outside the United Kingdom. Cyber and anti-fraud specialists are investigating the source.
Some schools still evacuated pupils as a precaution, but the majority continued operating as normal. The Department of Education in Northern Ireland advised schools to remain open unless advised otherwise by the PSNI. The Education Authority noted that the new message was similar to a bogus threat that police declared a hoax in October.
This is already the second such incident in a month. On 19 October 2026, similar emails were received by up to 300 schools in Northern Ireland and a number of schools in Scotland. At the time, Northern Ireland’s Education Minister Paul Givan described the threats as “Islamist”: they referred to the introduction of Sharia law and the presence of explosive devices, and ended with the words “Allahu Akbar”. Police also classified that incident as a hoax originating from abroad.
Similar messages were also reported in the Republic of Ireland, and earlier the same day in Italy, where hundreds of schools were evacuated. Authorities emphasise that such mass mailings create unnecessary anxiety and disrupt the educational process, and urge people to remain vigilant but not to panic.
