5/9/2024 Updated yesterday at 20:07|Source: ČTK
Events: Threats to attack schools (source: ČT24)
Over 490 schools received a threatening e-mail again on Thursday, police said on the X network. They consider the severity of the threat to be very low. She will proceed as in the previous days, when she tried to disrupt the lessons as little as possible. On Tuesday, hundreds of schools throughout the Czech Republic received a notification, the author of which threatened that they were mined. On Wednesday, some received an email threatening to explode. Schools in Slovakia also face similar threats.
The manner of the threat is very similar to that of the previous days, police said. “Although it is not the same e-mail address, according to our information there is a connection between the accounts,” she added.
According to the police, the threat cannot be underestimated, so they will proceed in the same way as in the past days. “It is still true that we do not want to interfere with the running of schools, because we consider the relevance of the threat to be very low,” the police presidium stressed.
The National Center against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime (NCTEKK), among others, is involved in clarifying the case. According to the police’s statement on Thursday, the work is complicated by “the sharing of unsubstantiated print screens from Telegram groups by the Czech public”. “It is this weeding of public space that is a standard strategy of attackers that we observe around the world. Please do not spread similar threats to your groups,” the police appealed to the X network .
At the Safety Line, the workers did not record any more contacts in connection with threatening e-mails, said its spokeswoman Michaela Klofcová. “The children do not call or write directly in relation to the events of the last few days or mention that their problems, such as psychological distress, are directly related to the events of the last few days,” she said. According to Klofcová, the number of calls on the line for parents doubled compared to August, but according to her, this is a general trend related to the beginning of the school year.
Cities cooperate with the police
In the Central Bohemia region, almost a hundred schools received a threatening e-mail with the threat of a bomb attack, explained police spokeswoman Barbora Schneeweissová. “We have taken adequate measures, we do not underestimate anything,” she assured. According to its spokesman Vít Hofman, the Prague municipality is also in contact with the police and is ready to cooperate with them. However, according to the spokesman, the procedures and management and resolution of the situation are on the side of the police.
In Hradec Králové, threatening e-mails arrived at all city schools. “The directors immediately informed the police operations center. At the same time, they were instructed by her to be more vigilant, search the school buildings and secure anything suspicious. For now, teaching works without restrictions and everything is in accordance with the instructions of the police, with whom the principals remain in contact,” explained Mayor Pavlína Springerová (Hradecký Democratic Club). In Liberec, an e-mail containing a threat was sent to twelve of the 21 elementary schools in Liberec. “They are all dealing with the police. We won’t say how, so that we don’t provide any information to attackers from the outside,” informed the Deputy Mayor of Liberec for Education Ivan Langr (Mayors for the Liberec Region).
According to Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN), the explosion threats concerned 600 schools on Tuesday and 400 facilities a day later. These were primary and secondary schools and state and private entities. The Austrian pointed out that the aim of the threats is to make society insecure and to introduce fear and nervousness into it. “We have seen this modus operandi in other places in Europe in the past,” he added. According to the minister, the police work with a larger number of investigative versions and exchange information with Slovak colleagues who are facing a similar problem.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) also thinks that the goal of the threats is to create fear. The police and secret services have strong suspicions about who is behind them, he said. “We don’t have it confirmed enough yet to say it publicly,” he pointed out.
“We see that (in threatening messages) there are stylistic, grammatical flaws. Most likely, there will be some artificial intelligence tool behind it that translated it from another language,” said security analyst Zdeněk Rod.
According to the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek (STAN), the situation cannot be taken as a “kidney problem” that occasionally appears in schools. He praised the creation of the working group, which, according to the Austrian, should be a platform for communication with principals, but also to solve pupils’ problems.
On Wednesday, Rakušan and Bek sent a letter to the principals of all primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic with information about the threats. They assured them that the police are working with maximum commitment.
Also in Slovakia, approximately 270 schools received a threatening e-mail on Thursday. The police do not consider the threat to be real, the introduced measures should affect teaching as little as possible, according to the statement of the local police presidium. Schools in the country were also notified of landmines on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to Nacher, the police are doing well
MP Patrik Nacher (ANO) said in Interview ČT24 that he thinks that schools and the police provide parents with enough information about threats and do what they have to do. He says that it is crucial for the police to communicate with the management of the schools in question, which, according to him, is happening.
“Unfortunately, such situations can and probably will occur. This cannot be prevented 100 percent,” he noted. According to him, the unification of the form of security measures at all schools could help, where possible, it can make the police’s work easier.
ČT24 interview: MP Patrik Nacher (ANO) on anonymous threats to schools (source: ČT24)
According to Nacher, the question of whether schools should evacuate pupils as a precaution belongs to the police. “As I understand it, the police evaluates the risks from the point of view of whether it was a general threat, sent en masse to hundreds of e-mails, or a specific threat to a specific school or a specific person, where it has completely different parameters. I wouldn’t get involved with the police here, and I certainly wouldn’t advise them,” he thinks.
Nacher is also convinced that penalties for similar threats should be toughened. “From the point of view of social danger, it would probably deserve higher punishments when you see how it is capable of completely dismantling the entire society in principle, stopping it,” he says.
