Lithuanian police receive 750 reports of bomb threats to schools, kindergartens

  • 2023-10-13
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Police on Friday have already received 750 reports of bomb threats to schools and kindergartens across Lithuania and reports continue coming in, Police Commissioner General Renatas Pozela said. 

"I am asking everyone not to panic, because it seems that the primary goal of these instigators is to create panic," he told a press conference.

Most of the threating emails are in the Russian language. Some demand a ransom for "the demining service" and others are political in nature.

"Not only the response forces, but also the police commissariats are working," Pozela told the press conference.

"This started yesterday – Klaipeda received, I think, 23 such threats and Vilnius received one, and a mass attack began last night," he said.

The police chief advised reporting such information to the Emergency Response Center at 112.

He said that the police are responding and inspecting every school or kindergarten that has received such a threat. 

The State Security Department (SSD) said earlier on Friday that the bomb threats appear to be a coordinated attack initiated by hostile states.

The schools and kindergartens contacted the police after receiving emails with threats, written in Russian.

Similar incidents have been reported Latvia and Estonia this week.