Fake Bomb Threats Reach Bosnia’s Serb-led Entity

Police in Bosnia's mainly Serbian Republika Srpska entity and Sarajevo Canton have received emailed threats targeting schools.

On Wednesday, several police units in Republika Srpska and Sarajevo Canton received the threatening emails containing bomb threats to elementary and high schools.

Bomb alerts have become common all over the region since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, but this is the first time they have affected Republika Srpska.

"Police have conducted inspections in a number of elementary and high schools all across Republika Srpska," the RS Interior Ministry on Wednesday.

Classes were dismissed for the day in schools that still have not been checked.

Meanwhile, police in Sarajevo Canton were kept busy for the same reason. This was the second time this had happened in Sarajevo Canton in just a week.

The first fake bomb alerts in Bosnia and Herzegovina occurred on May 25, when more than 110 schools and institutions in the country's capital had to be evacuated.

After that, the Commissioner of Police in the Canton said that such would be treated as an "act of terror" in future.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently warned about possible cyberattacks in Bosnia and neighbouring countries.

BIRN reported earlier on the wave of fake bomb alerts in the region, which has intensified since early March.

Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin on Wednesday said that Serbia's police had identified and prosecuted "all those who sent threats from the territory of Serbia about planted bombs". He did not reveal more details about these perpetrators.