Several European broadcasters receive bomb threats

Several European broadcasters have received emailed bomb threats, prompting staff evacuations and interruptions to broadcasting, Deutsche Welle reports.

Those receiving the warnings included Ireland’s RTÉ, Britain’s Sky, Bulgaria’s privately owned Nova television channel and others. No explosive devices were found at any of the broadcasters concerned.

RTÉ replaced its television programmes with music and pre-recorded broadcasts. In some cases, broadcasting was interrupted for up to three hours.

The newsrooms of Nova and RTÉ received emails stating: “We want the whole world to know about us, so one of our agents has planted an explosive device in your building. It will explode in 45 minutes. Time is ticking.”

It is not yet known who is behind the hoax threats. However, the emails sent to RTÉ and Nova were signed “Mikhail Andropov”. The surname is the same as that of Yuri Andropov, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee.