Messages threatening an attack, accompanied by a beheading video, have been sent to dozens of secondary schools in the Paris region by hacking into the schools' digital spaces, prompting the authorities to offer psychological support to pupils.
"At least 30 schools" in the Paris region have been receiving terrorist threats since Wednesday, the Ministry of Education told AFP. The threats were made via the Espace Numérique de Travail (ENT), the schools' internal mailbox, and the Pronote software, the ministry said.
The ENT is a digital space that serves as a link between teachers, pupils and parents. Pronote is used by the Ministry of Education to enter pupils' grades.
"Specialist investigative services are being mobilised to identify the perpetrator(s)," added the ministry, which is "offering psychological support to all children or adults who have viewed the shocking videos against their will."
According to a police source in Yvelines, a message announcing an explosive attack was sent to at least five secondary schools in the département. "The perpetrator(s) hacked into a pupil's email address to distribute the message and a beheading video to all the inboxes."
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The Île-de-France region announced that it had "lodged a complaint" on Thursday morning "with the Paris cyber Prosecutor's Office following the creation of a fraudulent site aimed at hacking the regional ENT."
The attack threats come after a wave of false bomb threats hit around 800 schools in the autumn. This escalated after the jihadist attack that claimed the life of a teacher, Dominique Bernard, in Arras on 13 October.
