About thirty schools remained closed this Monday in French-speaking Belgium, due to bomb threats transmitted by emails that also suggested a ransom demand, official sources said.
According to the organization Wallonie-Bruxelles Enseignement (WBE), which manages educational centers in Wallonia, around 10,000 students are affected by the closure of “schools, colleges and lyceums” in Brussels and in the province of Walloon Brabant, to the south. the Belgian capital.
“Last night [domingo]several of our directors informed us that they had just received a threatening email,” Julien Nicaise, general administrator of WBE, explained to broadcaster RTBF.
The email mentioned the possible use of explosives if the ransom was not paid.
The public French language teaching service justified the closure by referring to “strict respect for the principle of security.”
Schools warned most guardians to keep their children home on Monday.
“WBE is in contact with the competent authorities and the situation is constantly evaluated. Several places have already been controlled or are being controlled. The situation will be re-evaluated today,” the organization declared through the official Internet portal.
At the beginning of November, upon returning from a period of vacation after the All Saints’ holiday. [1 de novembro]Two schools had already been evacuated in Charleroi and Dinant, in Wallonia, after bomb threats received by email.
No explosive devices were found.
This Monday, the WBE school network regretted “the proliferation of this type of alerts in recent weeks and the difficulties they cause.”
In France, some 800 false bomb threats were recorded in schools between the start of the new school year, in September, and mid-November, according to the State Secretariat for Youth.
Source: TSF
