Around 300 schools in Northern Ireland received "Islamist" bomb threats via email on Monday morning, prompting evacuations, with Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan confirming the threats are not being treated as viable.
St Colman's Primary School in Lambeg issued an urgent message to parents after 9am, asking them to "come immediately and collect the children." The message explained that "many schools received a threat this morning." Parents with children at RBAI were also told that a "very large number of schools" received an "anonymous threat there was an explosive device planted in their school."
Police Conduct Urgent Enquiries
Police said they are conducting "urgent enquiries" after a number of schools received the email. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson from Police Service Northern Ireland said: "We take incidents of this nature very seriously and we understand the concern in the community, not to mention the disruption it has caused in some school communities and for students and parents."
He added: "Our enquiries are ongoing, however, at this stage we consider risk to the public as low. We will continue to liaise with schools impacted and have been working closely with the Department of Education and the Education Authority this morning to provide reassurance."
Community Reaction and Next Steps
Lisburn North DUP councillor Jonathan Craig said: "We all hoped and prayed that these days were long past us since this was a regular occurrence for all of us in our daily experience. And it's terrible that someone would do something like this and target children and put fear into children."
He added: "I just hope and pray that the PSNI investigate this properly, find the individual and prosecute, because he deserves anything that's coming from the justice system regarding this."
Henderson urged the public: "We urge everyone, in the meantime, to be vigilant and report anything suspicious to police immediately by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency."
