New series of e-mailed threats at schools in Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Yambol

A new series of bomb threats have been made against schools in Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Yambol.

Around 10.05 on March 29, around 30 schools in Sofia received the threatening email, which claimed that an explosive device had been planted in the school. The School of Finance and Economics is among the schools receiving threats in Sofia. There were no students in the building as there was an e-mailed bomb threat yesterday and they have been evacuated until 11.35 today. The head of the school was at the district police station to give evidence.

Schools such as 119 and 32 which evacuated the students yesterday because of threats will not be evacuating anyone today because they have been closed for 24 hours, everything has been checked and there is no way anyone could break into the schools and plant a bomb.

In Burgas, reports of explosive devices being planted have been received by two schools - the Russian High School and the Aleksandr Georgiev Kojakafalyata Primary School. Students were evacuated.

The threatening signal at the Aleksandr Georgiev Kojakafaliyata Primary School was received around 8:30. The school's deputy principal called for everyone to leave the building. The children were taken a distance far enough to a place, from where parents can pick them up.

The second alert was at the Russian School around 10.30am. The emergency system was switched on and the pupils were taken outside.

Because of the rush to get out, most of the children's backpacks and personal belongings were left inside, and the building will remain sealed off by police until tomorrow.

"Everything is in the rooms. The children have taken only jackets and shoes. I just think that it is more important to get out as quickly as possible," said teacher Veselina Georgieva.

"It's disrupting the learning process, it's not okay for that to happen in any school. Some measures have to be taken. Unfortunately, it's a bit of stress for all of us - both the teachers and the principals. It's not very nice to have things like this happen," said student Axel Martinov.

"They are worried. The younger ones for sure. We explain to them, but when this evacuation happens it's certainly not good for them," said Michaela, a mother of a child at the school.

The Computer School in Burgas also received such an email yesterday, but it ended up in spam.

In Varna, 18 schools received threatening emails today. This time the sender and the content are different. The threat is not about an explosive device being planted, but about shootings at schools.

Images by BTA

There will be an increased police presence throughout the day in all schools that received a threatening email, the Varna District Police Directorate said. Classes have not been suspended.

Threatening emails were also received at eight primary and elementary schools in Yambol this morning. The alert was received around 10 am. The educational process there has been suspended. Officers of the Yambol police department are checking the fences of the eight schools for explosives.

Everything has passed without panic, as yesterday the management has rehearsed the system of evacuation of students.

"There was no panic in the evacuation. At 10:20, all the students were out of the building. We informed the parents, but the young children did not understand what was happening and there were crying children, a very unpleasant situation and today the children will not be at school," said Iliana Bittsova, principal of the Petko Rachov Slaveykov Primary School in Yambol.

"This is a hacker attack, in my opinion, and it's just pointless, the whole thing. I guess it has to do with the elections," said Stanislava, a mother of a child at the school.

It is not yet clear whether classes will resume tomorrow.

Caretaker Minister of Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev, said today that an interdepartmental working group was being set up to draw up, by March 31, a new procedure for responding in the event of a threat for use of an improvised explosive device at critical infrastructure sites.