Hundreds of schools closed in bomb hoax by cyber criminals

HUNDREDS of schools were closed yesterday after receiving identical hoax bomb threats from cyber criminals in the gaming community.

The threat was sent by email to at least 400 school offices and claimed a bomb had been planted with a pupil which was due to explode at lunchtime.

Panicked head teachers called parents and demanded they pick up their children immediately before closing their schools. Horrified mothers and fathers across the country had to leave their jobs early and rush to get their children.

However, yesterday police confirmed the email was a hoax and appeared to have originated from the US. It is thought the email, written in poor English, was sent as part of a feud within the online community playing the Minecraft game.

Schools in London, Manchester, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Bristol, Somerset and Northumberland were among those targeted.

Students at Bristol Free School said they were met by police at the gates in the morning. One pupil told the Bristol Post: ‘The police are searching our bags and persons for unknown items. We have been told not to leave the classrooms... we are scared and confused and have no idea what is going on.’

The threatening email demanded that schools send $5,000 to a community gaming website called VeltPvP.com or the bomb would be detonated.

The administrators of VeltPvP.com said the email had been sent by ‘cyber criminals’ as part of a harassment campaign against them. They wrote on Twitter: ‘We have nothing to do with the bomb threats that were sent out to the 400+ UK schools. We’re extremely sorry for anyone who had to deal with this, but just know it’s fake.’

The man behind the hoax told Sky News anonymously that he had sent 24,000 emails to schools to smear the Minecraft website as part of an ongoing feud.

Police in one area where schools were targeted, North Yorkshire, said: ‘It is not believed there is any genuine threat.’