Bomb threats emailed to television stations across Europe on Friday forced evacuations and suspended programming, in the latest escalation of a hoax campaign that has disrupted air travel across the continent this week. Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Britain’s Sky and Bulgarian private station Nova TV were among those targeted, the companies said. No explosives were found at any of the sites.
The emails, titled “MESSAGE TO THE WEST”, warned that a device had been planted in the building and would detonate within 45 minutes. “We want the whole world to know about us, which is why one of our operatives has planted an explosive device in your building,” one email received by Nova and RTÉ read. “It will detonate in 45 minutes. The clock is ticking.”
RTÉ programmes were replaced by music and a pre-recorded message for up to three hours while police swept its Dublin campus; staff returned after a search lasting more than three hours. In Sofia, police evacuated the Nova newsroom, checked it and declared it safe; broadcasting was not interrupted and employees returned to their desks.
The messages were signed with the name Mikhail Andropov, with the sender claiming to be one of the leaders of the group behind this week’s hoax threats to aircraft. “But this is only the beginning. What happened this week is just a small part of what awaits Europe in the near future,” the message added. The surname matches that of Yuri Andropov, the former Soviet leader, and the email title echoes a biography of him — though it remains unclear whether that points to Russian involvement or is an attempt to blame Moscow.
The threats follow a string of hoax bomb alerts that have disrupted passenger flights from Serbia to Finland to Spain in recent days, forcing diversions, emergency landings and security sweeps. At least 25 flights were hit in a second wave on Thursday, after seven the previous day. They also come amid wider unease about hacking and scams, including cyberattacks on supermarkets and blood banks.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said European security agencies had not yet determined whether the threats to air travel and media organisations were the work of individuals or a coordinated attack. “It just illustrates how relatively simple it can be to cause disruption and to undermine the normal operation of society through unconventional activities of this kind, which are designed to cause disruption, designed to cause fear and anxiety,” he told RTÉ radio shortly after programming resumed. “We have to remain calm,” he added.
Sources: Reuters — https://www.reuters.com/world/bomb-threats-warning-the-clock-is-ticking-disrupt-tv-channels-across-europe-2026-11-06/
