Hoax bomb threat forces British School evacuation in Hague

The British School in the Hague was evacuated Tuesday morning after a bomb threat against the institution was made, police said. The threat was made shortly before 8 a.m., leading students to be kept at a nearby staging area a spokesman told the NL Times.

Investigators would not say in what manner the threat was made as it could compromise the ongoing investigation. The site was given the all-clear after several hours, with many returning to the building at about 11 a.m.

“Our employees worked together with the police, and reacted quickly,” a school headmaster Kieran Earley told AD. “The school was examined by the police, and they are certain it was a hoax.”

While police did say it was not a “real” threat, they would not say if they thought the case was linked to similar threats made around Europe on Tuesday.

A Twitter group going by the name Ev4cuati0nSquad claimed responsibility for bomb threats at 14 British schools and six others in France, which affected several thousand students.

The group, whose Twitter account has since been suspended, said they were fierce supporters of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. While bragging about their exploits with the hashtag #SwatTheWorld, they invited others to use the chaos for their own purposes.

“Want to get out of a school for a day? Want to divert the police away from a crime you’re going to commit? Email us,” they said on Tuesday.