Shocking 27 bomb threats against schools in Lower Austria!

Shocking 27 bomb threats against schools in Lower Austria!

In the night from Sunday to Monday, 27 bomb threats were received in schools in Lower Austria. These threats seem to have been written with the help of artificial intelligence and are reminiscent of a similar incident from December of the previous year. The current threatening letter claims that a bomb is placed in a school and should detonate on Monday at 11 a.m. The threat ends with the sentence "The Islamic State" and has led to considerable security measures. Volks and middle schools, high schools as well as state vocational schools in cities such as St. Pölten, Wiener Neustadt, Zistersdorf and Pöchlarn are affected. All affected schools were sealed off and searched by the police with explosives dogs to exclude possible dangers. Apart from the incidents in Lower Austria, further bomb threats in Vienna and in the federal states of Burgenland, Upper Austria, Salzburg and Styria have also been registered. According to [Exxpress.at] (https://exxpress.at/news/islamischer-staes-27-bombendranden- against-Schulen-in-niederoesterreich/), there could be a phenomenon called "swatting" behind these threats that aim to provoke large police operations through targeted false alarms.

Additional information show that this problem is not limited to Lower Austria. On Monday morning, a total of more than 50 bomb threats were registered in schools and kindergartens in Vienna, Lower Austria and four other federal states. While 27 of the threats in Lower Austria were recorded, 14 schools in Upper Austria, predominantly vocational schools, also experienced similar things. Nine schools in Styria were also checked. This wave of threats and defamation is often organized by a network that, according to experts, is specifically directed against teachers, schools and other institutions. A reason for these incidents suspected is the use of AI programs such as Chat GPT to create the threatening emails. The excessive use of swatting is also perceived internationally as a serious problem, which today.at underlines.

The impact and reactions

The frequent bomb threats not only lead to enormous security effort, but also cause uncertainty among teachers, students and parents. One of the recent incidents is to cancel a training event for teachers at a comprehensive school in Mönchengladbach, which was due to a bomb threat. The entire building was cleared and the lessons, which was not planned anyway, canceled. Similar threats were also drawn against a school in Wuppertal. In both cases the police were alerted, but no specific details were published.

In addition, there are reports of a bomb threat against ZDF, which led to the evacuation of several buildings on the broadcasting center in the Mainz district of Lerchenberg, including the transmission and administration building. After the implementation of security measures, however, there was an all-clear for the ZDF employees at noon. The incidents that have occurred in the past few days illustrate the far -reaching effects of these criminal acts. According to Spiegel.de, the attacks of the ZDF program such as "Today XPress" and the breakfast magazine "Vollen KNEE were - Service daily ”, which also illuminates the problem.