At least a dozen schools across New Zealand received bomb threats on Thursday, in what some schools believed could be an overseas “cyberbot” attack.
The threats followed four threats on Wednesday. Many of the schools were forced to lock down or evacuate.
At least some of the threats are believed to be hoaxes, which schools say could be coordinated by an overseas “cyberbot”. In a similar incident in 2016, more than 30 schools across the country received calls that played a recorded message threatening live bombs on school grounds.
New Zealand Principals Federation chief executive Cherie Taylor-Patel told RNZ she had spoken to secretary of education Iona Holsted. “The ministry has said that their understanding is that this was actually a cyberbot coming in from overseas,” she said.
New Zealand police said in a written statement that they were investigating threats made at schools across the country.
“Police take threats of this nature extremely seriously and is making inquiries to determine the source of the calls,” it said.
“At this stage police do not believe there is a safety risk.”
Awatapu College, in Palmerston North, said in a social media post: “The school has received a bomb threat. We are one of a number of schools in the region. Police believe the risk is very low but in abundance of caution we have made the decision to evacuate the school.”
While a number of schools said they believed the calls were recorded, Awatapu College principal Gary Yeatman told RNZ that their threat was not automated. He said the school was called by someone who said “there was a bomb on site and it was going to be detonated”.
“We weren’t given a location within the grounds, we weren’t given a time,” Yeatman said. “At the end of the day it is a bomb threat so we can’t sit back and ignore it and think everything will be fine. We have to take them seriously.”
Marlborough Girls’ College said in a social media post earlier on Thursday that the school had been locked down.
“Please be aware that we have put the school into lockdown based on advice from the NZ Police. Currently, all students and staff are safe inside the building and police are present and are investigating,” they said.
Police said that a number of other schools in the area had also locked down.
New Zealand police confirmed that they were investigating threats made to schools in a number of regions, including Marlborough, Masterton, Kaikoura, Greymouth, Queenstown, Levin, Whanganui, Rolleston, Takaka, Geraldine, Dunstan, Ashburton and Palmerston North.
