Bomb threats target schools in Lithuania, Latvia

VILNIUS/RIGA -- Several schools in Lithuania and Latvia received bomb threats via email on Monday, the first day of the new school year, according to police reports.

As of 9 am local time, the police in Lithuania had received 26 reports of threats to blow up educational institutions in the capital city of Vilnius, as confirmed by Revita Janaviciute, a spokeswoman for the Lithuanian police, to the Baltic News Service (BNS).

Currently, there is no information on any school evacuations. The Police Department, through its social media, advised schools not to panic and to maintain normal operations, emphasizing that evacuations should only occur if a suspicious item is found.

In a related development, over 200 emails containing bomb threats were received by several schools across Latvia on Monday morning, as confirmed by Latvia's state police chief Armands Ruks. He described these emails as "low-risk threats," adding that there was no need for evacuation.

The incidents follow a series of hoax bomb threats in October 2023, when thousands of schools, kindergartens, and municipal buildings across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were targeted with similar emails.