The essentials The Marie-Curie Institute in Tarbes was evacuated this morning after a bomb threat. 1,400 students are safe at the Maurice-Trélut stadium.
Bomb alert this Tuesday morning at the Marie-Curie Institute in Tarbes. It was the director of the establishment who received a threatening email this morning, indicating that several explosive devices were placed on the premises.
The establishment was evacuated around 9:20 a.m. 1,400 students present at the beginning of the day, teachers, administrative and technical staff peacefully left the school. They were taken to safety at the Maurice-Trélut stadium, located not far away, says the director of the Tarbais institute.
The police have cordoned off the area and installed a wide security perimeter, complicating traffic conditions in the neighborhood. The prefect of Hautes-Pyrénées, Jean Salomon, is present.
The school administration asks parents not to travel.
Law enforcement officers are on scene to explore the buildings and secure them. We are waiting for the Landes deminers with a specialized dog. Security operations should take time because the facility is large.
At the Maurice-Trélut stadium we are organizing to welcome the students. A meal distribution is planned. The Red Cross, firefighters and police are on site.
Two establishments evacuated yesterday
Yesterday, a school in Chambéry was the target of a false bomb threat of the same type and the 2,000 students at the school had to be evacuated. And also in Evreux, a training center was completely emptied of its trainees following a bomb threat.
These bomb threats echo the accusation of two teenagers suspected of wreaking havoc across the country by hacking into students’ digital workspaces.
These two teenagers, born in 2008, hacked into the digital workspace (ENT) accounts of around sixty students to spread bomb and attack threats, according to the prosecution. On June 24, the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office was contacted and the investigations were entrusted to the Central Office for Combating Crimes Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC).
In total, 27 incidents of bomb threats and attacks have come to light in various educational centers in France, particularly in Mulhouse, Lille and Créteil. The two teens were arrested and taken into custody Thursday, according to prosecutors. Their computers were seized during searches of their homes, he added.
At the end of their police detention, they were charged on Saturday with threats to kill or dangerously destroy people, attacks on an automated data processing system in an organized group and dissemination of false information. They were placed under judicial supervision.
