The Lauder Javne Jewish Community School was among 240 schools in Hungary that were evacuated after receiving a bomb threat via email, local media reported on Thursday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced heightened security measures and an ongoing investigation after a series of bomb threats disrupted schools across Hungary. In a Facebook post, the minister said he was in close contact with Interior Minister Sándor Pintér about the situation.
The bomb threats, which police believe came from a single source, were communicated via emails with similar content. According to local media reports, more than 240 schools had to be evacuated because of the threats, including educational institutions in Budapest and other regions.
Police operations were particularly visible at the Gárdonyi Géza primary school in Uybud, where an investigation is currently underway.
Local news outlets provided additional details, reporting that schools in urban and rural areas were targeted. Among the victims were Bocskai István Elementary School in Budapest’s 9th district and Németh László High School in Hódmezővásárhely.
Róbert Trippon, the mayor of Ujpest, said on social media that five high schools in Ujpest were also evacuated. Schools in Sigetsentmiklós, as well as in Budapest’s Csepel and Soroksár neighbourhoods, were also out of operation, according to Csepel.info, the website that published the threatening messages.
The National Police Headquarters confirmed that the email threats were likely to have come from the same source. The statement said:
“All necessary measures are currently being taken to eliminate these threats.”
The threatening letters to schools
Authorities urged anyone who receives such messages to contact police immediately and follow their instructions. An investigation has been launched by the Rapid Response Police National Bureau of Investigation (KR NNI) into the alleged threat to public safety. Regional police units have been directed to co-operate fully with KR NNI to expedite the investigation.
To support the affected schoolchildren, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced on Facebook that heated buses provided by public transport company BKK were used to keep the evacuated children warm.
Copies of the threat are circulating online.
The email begins:
“An explosive device was planted in the school. Now is the time to extend our blessed operations to the heart of Europe, the bastion of disbelief and hypocrisy. We have witnessed your governments’ ongoing war against Muslims, and it would be only right that you should now experience the wrath of the oppressed. From now on, your safety is no longer guaranteed.”
It continued:
“Let Europe know the taste of retribution and the cost of interfering in the affairs of the Muslim World. The time of reckoning has come, and we are the instruments of Allah’s wrath. This is not a threat, It is a promise. It is the will of Allah.”
Further updates are expected as the investigation progresses.
