Bomb threats sent by email to Bulgarian state bodies may be hybrid operations against the country, and a test of how officials react, the interior ministry says. Interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told parliament during questions that this assumption is based on the evidence so far.
Since June 2026, state bodies have received hundreds of emails threatening explosive devices. The recipients include courts, universities, kindergartens and ports.
Demerdzhiev said the threats came from compromised email accounts. They were sent through platforms in Italy, the UK, Lebanon, Brazil and Argentina, and through a free Swiss service that hides the sender. The ministry has sent queries to the email providers, but the anonymising service means the real sender cannot be identified. It has also contacted partner agencies.
There is evidence that the texts were written with translation software. Demerdzhiev said this may mean the authors are not Bulgarian citizens. Institutions in other Balkan and European countries received threats over the same period.
"There is a characteristic pattern: bomb threats escalate at certain times," the minister said. He gave the example of his hearing on 2 July, where he presented data on flights made by the head of a parliamentary group. After that, he said, "the number of these threats jumped on 3, 7 and 8 July".
Demerdzhiev also linked the rise in threats last week and this week to his own hearings.
The ministry is working on two theories. One is that these are hybrid attacks of different kinds. The other is that someone wants to cause chaos at certain moments.