France He is experiencing ‘the wolf is coming’ syndrome. As in the legendary tale, the neighboring country faces a wave of false warnings (in this case, bomb attacks). Although unconvincing, French authorities need to take all of these warnings seriously in case one of them is about a real danger. It forces them mobilizing a large number of resources awareness of hundreds of people as well as police evacuationsApart from the economic impacts, it also has mental impacts on the people affected.
HE Palace of Versailles The second most visited monument in France, located just behind the Louvre Museum. He was evicted seven times in the last 10 days Because of bomb threats. More than 70 such warnings have been received at French airports since October 18 and dozens of evacuations have been carried out. Schools and institutes most affected by these terrible pranks have been evacuated more than 300 times since the beginning of this year.
Rise before the Gaza war
At first glance, these figures seem alarming, but this is nothing new for France. “This is a cyclical phenomenonHe explained to the newspaper that it was a situation that occurred “from time to time” Le Parisian Denis Jacob, general secretary of the Alternative Police union. The neighboring country faced a wave of such threats in 2016, which were later claimed by the mysterious group Evacuation Team. According to the data of the Ministry of Justice; Up to 759 people were fined in 2021 and 670 for such false alerts last year.
The French justice system has been opened since October 7 Up to 64 reviews For such warnings. But the current wave began before the brutal attacks. Hamas and the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The main places affected are education centres. There were 117 bomb threats between early September and October 6. In fact, there were more than 15 evictions during this month at institutions such as the Arago High School in Villeneuve Saint-George (on the southeastern outskirts of Paris).
Transport Minister Clément Beaune said: “The little wise-crackers or little jokers who participate in such games are in reality big fools or big criminals. We will not leave them unpunished.” While some of these threats are delivered through conventional methods such as calls or mail (for example, in the case of the Bayonne mosque evacuated last Friday), the majority are It comes from emails. anyone Messages on administration websitesAs in a Police portal to communicate with citizens. Beaune explained that all threats against airports came from the same email registered in Switzerland.
Most of the detainees are young
Many of those responsible for these warnings They often use VPN or other computer mechanisms to conceal your identity. An X user (formerly Twitter) posted a tutorial on how to make these threats in September. Over the past month, they already went viral on TikTok and Snapchat images from school evacuation, encouraged young people to make such jokes in a very bad way. Media coverage of this phenomenon in recent weeks has also contributed to the current peak, during which France has raised its anti-terrorism alert level to maximum. Murder of Professor Dominique Bernard on October 13 by a radicalized former student.
“If there is one message I want to give, it is that we found everyone,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said last week. said. Justice blames the authors of these threats on “disclosure of false information” punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, as well as “threat of destruction“, with up to three years in prison and multi-figure fines. Some judges even punished those responsible for these threats for “deliberately designed psychological violence.”
“About this basically minors Darmanin said of those arrested for this incident: Their motivations are unclear. Their profile does not fit that of Islamic fundamentalists. Despite this, this wave of false warnings has become increasingly widespread. Neighboring country’s security forces are in trouble. Whenever they are alerted to such a threat, they must evacuate and monitor the area and also use tools such as dogs specialized in explosives. “This is a waste of a lot of energy,” complained Louba Atta, spokeswoman for the Paris police prefecture.