Hundreds of schools across Italy shut their doors Wednesday after a wave of hoax bomb threats, part of a widening pattern of fake emergency alerts that officials across Europe are increasingly describing as coordinated harassment rather than isolated pranks.

Italy's Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said at least 300 schools were affected, warning the number could still rise; Italian media separately tallied 312 schools receiving the threatening emails, according to Euronews. Some of the messages went further than threatening schools alone — they also claimed a device had been planted in the car of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who told reporters there was no concrete danger.

Spreading Beyond Italy

Similar hoax emails hit schools in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland the same day, according to Al Jazeera. Most UK and Irish schools weren't forced to cancel classes, though some schools in Scotland did evacuate as a precaution. Police in Northern Ireland said the messages appeared to have originated from outside the UK.

Investigators believe the Italian threats were signed with the same pseudonym used in threats sent to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria the previous Friday, suggesting a single actor or network behind multiple waves of hoaxes rather than copycat incidents, per Newsweek.

NO "CONCRETE DANGER" — PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI

Part of a Bigger Pattern

Wednesday's hoaxes land less than a week after more than 20 commercial flights across Europe were diverted or delayed by separate fake bomb threats, and after earlier waves hit schools in Hungary, Serbia, Belgium, France and Germany over the past year. European officials have started using the term "hybrid aggression" to describe the pattern — disruption campaigns designed to tie up emergency services and rattle public confidence without any device ever being real. No arrests had been announced as of Wednesday night, and authorities in multiple countries said they were working to trace the emails' true origin.