A new wave of fake bomb email threats reached Bulgaria today, and kindergartens are again among the recipients. Police called on kindergarten heads to phone 112 first if they get one.
In the panic, some heads lead the children out first and only then call 112, said Insp. Penka Stoyanova of the National Police Directorate's Security Police department, patrol and guard unit. Sofia Municipality says children are led out only after an order from law enforcement.
The Interior Ministry has received hundreds of similar alerts since June, and not all come from kindergartens. The emails were machine-translated into Bulgarian, and the real sender is unknown. Pre-trial proceedings have also been opened over the fake alerts.
On 6 October, a mother of two children at the same kindergarten, in an apartment block in Sofia, got a message about a bomb threat. It said she had to pick them up at once. She went straight there and found the children outside. Her younger son is in a group with older children. One of them had understood what was happening, and her son was crying, the mother said.
Police searched the kindergarten and found no danger. The next day, the kindergarten got another threatening email.
The mother has told her children to move fast and go outside when there is an evacuation. They have asked her what the danger is. She cannot explain that to a 4-year-old, and does not know how he understands what is going on. She believes both children and parents are under stress, even though they know the alarm is false. All parents jump to their feet, because they do not know when an alert will not be fake, she said.
The family's kindergarten declined to comment, as did other kindergartens, some of which received threats today.