Flights to and from Britain have been targeted in a fresh wave of bomb threats this morning, with European airlines plunged into chaos for a third day this week.
And newsrooms including Sky News, the Irish national broadcaster RTE and Bulgarian media station Nova TV were also targeted with threats.
An email sent to RTE warned that this week's chaos was 'only the beginning' and that 'the clock is ticking'.
Yesterday, emails sent to airports in Rome and Sofia were signed by 'the fighters of the Male State', a Russian radical misogynist movement, but on Friday its founder denied the group had any links to the hoax bomb threats.
European authorities are now scrambling to identify the sources of the threats, as fresh ones hit at least nine flights arriving at and leaving Prague Airport, just a day after a wave of hoaxes disrupted at least 27 flights across Europe.
'The threats concern incoming flights from Denmark, Spain and Great Britain. As for outgoing flights, it's flights to the Netherlands, Cyprus, Romania, Italy and Great Britain,' said spokeswoman Denisa Hejtmankova.
Alerts were also received for two flights to Sofia on Friday – one coming in from Stansted Airport in Britain and from Brussels.
And Danish police said they are investigating threats directed towards air traffic at Copenhagen airport, but added there is no immediate danger to passengers.
A bomb threat was also reported on a Ryanair flight from Rome that landed in Lisbon, and the French prime minister's office confirmed that four aircraft flying over France today were targeted with bomb threats.
Hungarian jets escorted three civilian flights subject to bomb threats while they were in Hungarian airspace on Friday, Hungarian defence minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said on social media.
He said the jets escorted an Airbus A321 travelling from Brussels to Sofia as well as flights from Prague to Cyprus and to Bucharest.
Meanwhile, broadcaster Sky News confirmed it also received a security threat and media organisations in Ireland including RTE, were also targeted this morning.
A threatening email read: 'This is only the beginning. What happened this week is just a small part of what awaits Europe in the near future... very soon, we will be blowing up your airplanes, cruise ships, subway stations, and trains.'
'We want the whole world to know about us, which is why one of our operatives has planted an explosive device in your building,' read one email received by Nova and RTE on Friday. 'It will detonate in 45 minutes. The clock is ticking.'
Targeted flights and locations:
- London Stansted to Sofia (landed safely)
- Brussels to Sofia (landed safely)
- Copenhagen airport sees police presence following 'threats directed at air traffic.'
- Wizzair flight from Prague to Rome (diverted to Vienna)
- Ryanair flight from Rome to Lisbon (landed safely)
- Four aircraft flying over France (landed safely)
- Four inbound flights and five outbound flights to and from Prague, including UK flights
- RTE offices in Dublin
- Sky News offices in Britain
- Nova TV in Bulgaria
Police officers at Copenhagen Airport after the threats caused fresh chaos today
Staff were evacuated from RTE studios in Dublin due to a hoax bomb threat
Evacuated passengers waited for a train at Copenhagen Airport as the threats were investigated
The Irish government described this morning's threats as 'very serious', adding that the authorities are working to find those responsible.
A reporter for RTE radio said after news programming went back on air from an outside broadcasting unit that a threat was sent to the broadcaster by email shortly before 9am that a bomb was going to go off within 45 minutes.
The email said that its author was 'one of the leaders of the group responsible' for the airline threats.
'It is worrying, and we take the threat seriously,' Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said in a telephone interview with RTE shortly after the more than one-hour interruption to its programming ended.
'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. We have to remain calm and very focused on this.'
RTE's campus in south Dublin remained closed while police checked it building by building, the reporter said.
Spain's foreign minister said the continent appeared to be facing 'hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare'.
José Manuel Albares told the national broadcaster TVE that, while it would take time to determine exactly what happened, 'it cannot be mere coincidence that so many incidents with exactly the same modus operandi are happening across Europe'.
Simon Edwards, a cyber expert and CEO of SE Labs, told the Daily Mail that these threats could be a 'warm-up for a major incoming attack'.
'The recent pattern of cyber attacks on freezers and blood banks across Europe is peculiar and doesn't follow the usual playbook. Opportunistic attackers and even state hackers target money, as with the Binance hack, but the latest incidents are about disruption and seem like a nation state testing how far it can reach,' he said.
'It's either intimidation from state-sponsored hackers or, more worryingly, a warm-up for a major incoming attack.'
It comes after a string of bomb threats disrupted passenger flights across Europe in recent days, forcing diversions, emergency landings and security sweeps, though no explosives have been found so far.
At least 27 flights were affected yesterday, including several travelling from the UK.
A Ryanair jet travelling from London to Bulgaria was among those targeted while multiple planes had to be escorted by fighter jets as they were diverted across the continent, with on-the-ground bomb squads racing to inspect aircraft as they landed.
An Aer Lingus flight travelling from Dublin to Rome was also diverted to France today, while two other flights bound for Prague, from Newcastle and Glasgow, were targeted by bomb threats. Both have since landed safely.
In Britain, Heathrow and Birmingham airports confirmed they had received threats early in the day, which were later resolved, with flights continuing as normal.
Heathrow declared the malicious hoax threats as not credible.
While no country has attributed blame for the threats, they come at a time when European officials have been blaming both Russia and Iran for what they describe as 'hybrid attacks' and acts of sabotage.
Emails sent to the Rome and Sofia airports were signed 'the fighters of the Male State'.
But the founder of the 'Male State', Vladislav Pozdniakov, said on social media Friday that the 'movement does not exist since 2021' and denied their involvement.
'Those who are organising on the territory of European countries provocations from this 'brand' are acting in their interests, just using someone else's flag,' he said on Telegram.
'Not that I am particularly concerned about Europe, its security or its economy (in fact, I could not care less about it),' he added.
Other flights affected include one from Helsinki to Rome, which was safely escorted to the Italian capital's Fiumicino airport by air force jets.
Meanwhile, a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Vienna landed as normal after receiving a bomb threat.
And a bomb alert was reported on a WizzAir flight from Milan to Warsaw, which was forced to divert to Vienna, and on a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Brussels.
One WizzAir flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice on Friday (File pic)
An Aegean Airlines flight from Thessaloniki and a Ryanair flight from Porto both flying to Milan arrived safely at their destination following bomb threats.
And a Finnair flight, also to Rome, landed at its destination after receiving a bomb threat.
Airport authorities in Rome said the hoax threats were sent via email with the subject line: 'Threat Notification'.
Later, three aircraft were forced to land at Bulgarian airports following bomb threats.
Two of the aircraft, flying from Copenhagen and Madrid respectively, landed in Sofia, while a third aircraft, from London, landed in Plovdiv.
Polish airline LOT said that a flight from Warsaw to Brussels landed safely at its destination after a security warning and no threat was confirmed.
Four airplanes heading to Prague received bomb threats on Thursday, Czech police said.
Two originated in the UK, one from Greece and the other from Ireland, according to local media reports.
And a Finnair flight from Helsinki, operated by Jettime, on Thursday landed as normal in Vienna after receiving a bomb threat, a spokesman for the Finnish carrier said.
Another WizzAir flight from Milan to Bucharest also faced a bomb threat, according to the Romanian intelligence agency.
Security experts said on Thursday that the threats had the hallmarks of a coordinated 'hybrid attack', although it was always possible that individuals were issuing copycat threats or acting on personal grievances.
While no country has attributed blame for the threats, they come after a wave of sabotage attacks and attempts on targets across Europe ranging from German electricity substations to defence-related facilities in the Baltic region, supermarket refrigerators in France and elsewhere and Leipzig airport in Germany.
Many officials have linked the campaign to Europe's support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion, accusing Moscow of a campaign of 'hybrid' disruptions that are essentially cheap to execute, easily deniable, and not expected to trigger an armed response.
