“A bomb will explode within 45 minutes”: Bomb threats sweep Europe, prompting emergency landings and evacuations at broadcasters

[Financial News] A wave of bomb threats targeting passenger flights across Europe, major airports in various countries and media outlets is causing growing turmoil, with flights being diverted and broadcaster employees evacuated in emergencies.
According to the Financial Times (FT) and other international media on the 6th (local time), at least 35 passenger planes in Europe have received bomb threats so far this week. Twenty-seven reports were filed in a single day the previous day, and coordinated threats continued on the 6th in Prague, Czech Republic (at least eight flights), France (four flights), Portugal, Bulgaria and elsewhere. A Wizz Air plane flying from Prague, Czech Republic, to Rome, Italy, diverted to Venice and landed there after a bomb threat. Bomb disposal teams and armed police were deployed amid commotion at major airports, including those in Lisbon, Portugal, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Searches aboard the planes found no actual explosives, but air traffic was severely disrupted by emergency landings and fighter jets being scrambled.

The threats spread beyond aircraft to media outlets. In Dublin, Ireland, a wave of bomb-threat emails was sent that day to 18 media outlets, including public broadcaster RTÉ and private radio station Newstalk. RTÉ said, “We received an email saying, ‘A bomb will go off within 45 minutes,’ and the sender claimed to be behind the threats against European airlines the previous day.” Armed police responded immediately after the threat, and RTÉ’s broadcasts were suspended for more than an hour as staff evacuated.
Irish authorities are substantially tightening security ahead of the European Political Community (EPC) summit, attended by leaders from around 50 countries, and an informal EU summit, both taking place on the 12th. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said, “They are disrupting society in an unconventional way,” adding, “We will find those responsible and hold them strictly to account.”
Investigators in several countries are leaving open the possibility that the repeated false bomb threats are a Russian hybrid operation intended to sow confusion and distrust. The signature of the Russian extremist group “Male State” was previously found in many of the threat emails, and recent hacks involving supermarket refrigeration equipment and a blood bank have also been suspected of being the work of Russia. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian presidential office, strongly denied this, calling it “an absurd claim to implicate Russia in everything without any evidence.”


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