Unfortunately, history has proved that schools have the capability to be the targets of attacks and should also consider bomb blast window film in the construction stage or when refitting windows. This week, across the UK, schools have been subject to malicious bomb threats which have meant having to evacuate students.
Media, such as ITV News, picked up on the story after six schools in Northern Ireland, several in Scotland and four in Cambridgeshire received threatening phone calls, causing thousands of pupils to be sent home while police investigated on Monday and Tuesday last week.
By the end of the school week, the number of schools sat nearer to 52 which were forced to close, including schools in Brighton, London, Middlesbrough and Newcastle.
Detective Sergeant James Meanwell told the Daily Mail: “The call [in Brighton] shows similarities to a number of calls that were received at schools in Sussex and others in the UK on Tuesday this week.
“These remain under investigation as malicious hoaxes. We are now investigating this incident as an elaborate hoax and are satisfied that there was no credible threat to the school.”
As well as bomb threats, calls were made warning of a ‘rogue gunman’ on the school grounds in some cases.
The schools, which are currently seeing pupils sitting exams, had all been cleared after searches by the police, and special arrangements will be put into place for those who had to evacuate mid-way through an exam.
In January this year, a similar problem occurred with a wave of hoaxes, which a Russian Twitter group claimed responsibility for.
