‘Telephone terrorists’ target Russian cities

THE Kremlin yesterday condemned hundreds of bomb threats made by anonymous telephone callers against major public buildings in Russia as “telephone terrorism”.

More than 150,000 people were evacuated from schools, hospitals, hotels, shopping centres, airports, railways stations and universities targeted by the bomb threats in at least 30 Russian cities since Monday.

Dozens of buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg were evacuated yesterday, but no traces of explosives have been found.

Officials from Russian security services investigating the calls are yet to make any statement. “Once there are results, security services will announce them,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. “It is a difficult task, and it requires patience.”

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency suggested that calls were coming from Ukraine, Russia’s adversary since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Yesterday, RIA Novosti reported that security services had information that people behind the hoax calls were connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Silent finale Marc Jacobs SS18 took the closing spot at this year’s New York Fashion Week in a show that saw Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford (left and below), Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid walk a silent catwalk. The designer chose to leave the...