Police investigating threatening 'hoax' emails sent to schools from outside the UK

Police in Northern Ireland and Scotland are investigating after threatening emails, deemed to be a hoax, were sent to hundreds of schools.

Stormont's education minister said schools in Northern Ireland had received bomb threats, which were not being treated as viable.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stated that up to 300 schools had reported receiving the same emailed message which contained a generalised threat and originated from outside the UK.

"It is believed similar emails have been received by some schools across UK," they added.

Police Scotland said it was aware of threatening messages had been sent to a number of schools across the country and that these were being treated as a hoax.

It is understood some schools around Glasgow were evacuated on Monday morning, but have since reopened.

The Scottish Government said it had been informed about the hoax threats.

Speaking about the threats in Northern Ireland, Stormont's education minister Paul Givan said: "It would appear to me [they were] from Islamists threatening that Sharia law will be brought into our country," adding that they were signed off with "Allah Akbar".

He condemned the disruption caused to young people's education, after a number of schools closed after receiving the threat through formal communication channels.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was conducting "urgent inquiries" and was liaising with affected schools.

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Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said: "We take incidents of this nature very seriously and we understand the concern in the community, not to mention the disruption it has caused in some school communities and for students and parents.

"Our enquiries are ongoing, however, at this stage we consider risk to the public as low."

(c) Sky News 2026: Police investigating threatening 'hoax' emails sent to schools from outside the UK