A teenage boy has been charged over a copycat bomb threat made to a school on Sydney's lower north shore last week.
Hundreds of students were evacuated from North Sydney Boys High School on Falcon Street after it received a threatening phone call and email on Thursday.
The security scare happened just before some HSC students were due to sit their final modern history exam.
Teachers and students made their way to a nearby oval as specialist police were called in to check the buildings for explosives, although nothing was found.
Cybercrime detectives arrested one of the school’s students, seizing his mobile phone and computer during raids on his home in the city’s south early this morning.
Police allege the boy spat at an officer before he was put into a dark sedan and driven to Kogarah Police Station.
He was charged with use carriage service to threaten to kill, use carriage service to make hoax threat and common assault.
The student was granted conditional bail and will have to face a Children’s Court at the end of this month.
The copycat threat was made just days after criminals from eastern Europe sent a series of threatening emails to more than 30 schools across the state.
Thousands of HSC students were forced to abandon their exams as schools were evacuated.
Cybercrime Squad Commander, Detective Acting Superintendent Gordon Arbinja said more than 40 such threats to schools in Sydney and regional NSW were received in the space of a week.
"Police wish to remind everyone, and particularly the community, that threats of this nature are a serious criminal offence," he said.
He said police were investigating whether disrupting HSC exams was the motive.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian commended the police for catching the alleged culprit behind the North Sydney bomb hoax.
"Anyone who compromises the safety of any of our citizens, especially students going through a very stressful time, needs to have the book thrown at them," she said.
"Everyone should heed this message: If you do the wrong thing, you will be caught."
The main exams affected were legal students and visual arts, but most afternoon exams went ahead as planned.
NSW Police are working with the Australian Federal Police and their oversees partners to track down the culprits behind the mass email threats.
As investigations continue, police said anyone caught making any threats will face the full force of the law, which could include jail time.
