Some 240 schools across the country have been hit by a bomb alert due to threatening letters, including 29 in the capital of Budapest. The South Pest District Fire Department and the police have confirmed the bomb threats in a press release, while reports and social media posts from various schools are trickling in.
During a Government Info session in Hungary, Gergely Gulyás, minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, told press that a letter sent via a foreign server indicates that radical Islamists are behind the threat. All schools received the same message that the sender seeks to take revenge on the recipients in the name of Allah. Hungarian State Police have verified the threat and letter received.
Remix has translated a copy of the letter in question.
SecState for International Communication Zoltan Kovács posted on X: “The police confirmed that identical emails were sent to multiple schools and have launched an investigation into the threats under the Penal Code’s section on public endangerment. The National Bureau of Investigation is leading the inquiry, with regional units instructed to collaborate urgently.”
According to reports Telex, the Csepel Daycare Center has been opened in Csepel for those whose parents cannot take them home, as well as for the teachers and chaperones who come with them. Meals will also be provided here, wrote Mayor Borbély, who asked parents to pay attention to the news.
The mayor confirmed the bomb threat on Facebook, writing: “There is a bomb threat in primary and secondary schools in Budapest. This also affects our schools in Csepel, threatening letters are constantly arriving. It is expected that the schools will be evacuated.”
The Vermes Miklós Elementary School in Csepel also posted on Facebook shortly before nine o’clock that “there are bomb alarms in several schools in the district. We are currently at the ÁMK Sports Hall. In 30 minutes we will leave for the Danube bank to KIMBÁ. Anyone who knows can come and pick up their child and take them home.”
The police told Promenad24 that they deployed large forces to the Németh László High School and Elementary School in Hódmezővásárhely as well.
Children had to leave their bags and phones inside schools, making it difficult to communicate with parents. This is partly due to a mobile phone restriction based on a government decree whereby students can bring their phones to school, but they must immediately hand them over until their last class ends. During this time, as a general rule, smart devices must be stored in a locked place specified in the house rules.
According to Krisztina Baranyi, Mayor of Budapest’s 9th District, two schools are currently affected in her district, while five institutions in Újpest were reported by Nobert Trippon, mayor of Újpest. “According to initial information, 50 secondary institutions in Budapest and the countryside (are affected). There is no reason to panic, parents should go to pick up their children if possible. The schools have notified parents by e-mail or phone,” he wrote.
Deputy mayor of the 18th District, László Somody, reported on only one school, the Vajk-sziget Elementary School, for now. In District 2, Fillért Utai Elementary School announced on Facebook that they also had a bomb threat.
Recently, there have been mass school bomb threats in several neighboring countries, including Serbia and Slovakia, Telex writes.
Last November, Politico quoted Czech secret service chief Michal Koudelka as saying that Russia was behind bomb threats in his country and Slovakia: “Operations in cyberspace are also related to direct attacks on entities in our country … for example, the September threatening emails about the placement of explosives targeting a number of schools in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, behind which there is also a clearly visible Russian trace.”
This is not the first time such threats have happened in Hungary. Just last week, Remix News reported on bomb threats to several stores in the city of Székesfehérvár, central Hungary. And in 2022, a wave of bomb threats forced the evacuation of malls in Budapest and other cities across Hungary as well. So far, no bombs have ever been found.
Details in the current case are still coming in.
