Bomb Threat at 268 Schools in Hungary

  • 23 Jan 2025 12:11 PM
Bomb Threat at 268 Schools in Hungary
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday morning said he is in contact with the interior minister over bomb threats received by multiple schools across Hungary.

"We will bolster the security of the schools in question and investigate the bomb threats," Orban said on Facebook.

Later on Thursday, state secretary Bence Retvari said that according to data gathered at 11.30, 268 schools received bomb threats, 245 of them in Budapest and 23 outside the capital. All Budapest school districts have received threats, he said.

Police spokesman Kristof Gal said no explosives were found in the schools searched so far.

 "This supports [the theory] that the email, sent to hundreds of addresses with the same content, probably lacks all foundation," Gal said.


Gulyas: Govt to ensure security at schools

The government "is capable of ensuring security at schools", the head of the Prime Minister's Office told a regular press briefing on Thursday, adding that an investigation had started concerning multiple bomb threats at schools earlier in the day.

Gulyas said Prime Minister Viktor Orban had been in contact with the interior minister and the minister in charge of the secret services since the first threatening emails arrived in the early hours of the morning. The emails seem to have come from the same sender, and contain the same text, he said.

According to Gulyas, lessons were not suspended centrally, although principals had the right to decide otherwise.

The police are in the process of ascertaining if the threats have any foundation, he said. Hungary's secret services have contacted their Slovak counterparts in view of Slovak schools having received similar threats last year, he said.

Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitalyos said bomb threats have been sent to 121 institutions so far.

Letter schools got:



Tisza: Security for children, school staff 'of paramount importance'

The security of children and staff at schools is of paramount importance at all times, Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party, said on Thursday, after a number of schools received bomb threats across the country, and condemned "the coordinated act of intimidation".

Magyar said the government should ensure adequate information to parents as to "what is happening to their children, where they are and when the parents can fetch them."

According to Magyar, the government must inform the public "whether they had previous information on the threats, and if they did, why they didn't inform the public and take preventive measures." He laid the blame at the door of the minister responsible for the secret services and the interior minister "if they had no knowledge of such a coordinated attack".

Magyar also suggested a link between the bomb threats and Hungary's releasing people smugglers from prison, and said that "public security is jeopardised by the government's interfering with the Middle East conflict."

He called for Hungarian soldiers to be called home from countries stricken with civil war, and for a review of "the decision of the Orban government to sell the largest developmental area in Budapest to Arab investors way below the market price."

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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