site.btaUPDATED Police Probe Multiple Bomb Hoaxes in Sofia's Schools, More Are Reported Across Bulgaria

Multiple bomb threats have been received for Sofia schools, the Sofia police told BTA Wednesday. The buildings are being searched for explosives.

Bomb threats were also received by email by schools in Varna, Vratsa, Dobrich, Pernik, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora.

The Education Ministry said that "arrangements have been made to continue classes throughout the day". 

When a school receives a bomb threat, classes are suspended while the building is searched and the school day is extended.

The Interior Ministry said later that the General Directorate for Combating Cybercrime found that the malicious e-mails were sent from several different e-mail addresses created on a foreign platform for publicly available free online postal services. All of them have identical content. There were no specific threats, demands, terms or conditions in the messages. Communication was made with international partners to identify the perpetrators, with Interpol, and with the foreign IT company's structure.

The penalty for such an offence under the Criminal Code is up to 2 years in prison.

The work on the case is continuing, the Ministry of Interior said.