French, British schools on alert after bomb threats

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

PARIS: Around 20 schools in France and Britain were placed on bomb alert Thursday following another round of telephone threats, the second in a week.

Police were sent to secure five of the most prestigious schools in Paris after bomb threats were phoned in, and British police said they were probing threats at 14 schools in central England believed to be "false and malicious."

"At this stage there is nothing to suggest there is any credible threat to any of the schools," said Detective Inspector Colin Mattinson of the West Midlands police, the force that covers the city of Birmingham.

British media said four schools in London had been evacuated, although this was not confirmed.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2016/Jan-28/334421-french-british-schools-on-alert-after-bomb-threats.ashx

[Bad Dog]

1. I posted these on another thread, but they're relevant here.

I only know about the bomb threats to English schools because of DU.

This is not a story, it's not even on the BBC main page. If schools had been shut down, we would have heard of it. I don't think anyone considered it credible. There's no mayhem, it's a dead loss.

Both of these stories made the BBC website front page today. (actually yesterday)

And are considered more newsworthy.


A man was found with 38 mobile phones stuffed down his trouser legs at a Libertines concert, police say.

West Midlands Police said the man was spotted at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday evening with his trouser legs taped at the bottom.




Polecats, which were almost wiped out in Britain in the last century, have made a remarkable comeback, conservationists say.

The results of a nationwide survey reveal that the animals are spreading into areas where they have not been seen for 100 years.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

[Denzil_DC]

2. Bomb threats,

i.e. telegraphing an attack ahead of time, isn't an ISIL MO that I've heard of in the past. They've tended to major in the element of surprise. More like the old IRA tactic, to the extent they eventually even had prearranged code words with the authorities to signal that the phone warning giving notice wasn't a hoax.

Hopefully nothing will come of this. It has to be said, if someone fancies a day off school, it's not been unknown to make a wee phone call in the past.

And yes, one could certainly develop a curious and extremely scaremongery view all sorts of aspects of life in the UK if one relied on what DUers tend to grab onto from the tabloids etc. It gets a bit tiresome, TBH.