On Tuesday night, schools and kindergartens in Lithuania again received bomb threats.
“Threats have been received again during the night. As far as we can see, schools and kindergartens have been told that bombs at their institutions would explode at 9:00,” Police Department spokesperson Ramūnas Matonis told LRT RADIO.
The police had received over 1,000 bomb reports from various institutions by 10:00 on Tuesday.
Matonis once again urged institutions to remain calm, report the threats, and follow the recommendations issued last night.
“The municipalities should have shared [the recommendations] with the responsible authorities, I hope they have received them, and things will be different now,” the Police Department spokesperson said.
“The main idea of these recommendations is not to rush to evacuate people and stop the activity, but to first call the phone number given by the police (8 700 60 000). If there is no more information, no objects were found after the night, there is nothing suspicious after the inspection of the premises, in this case, it is necessary to continue the activity and ignore such threats,” he explained.
According to Matonis, the premises should be evacuated if a suspicious object is found in the institution.
“If a suspicious object is found and it is not clear where it came from, [...] people should evacuate, call 112, and wait for the arrival of police officers,” he said.
The continuing barrage of hoax bomb threats has exposed shortcomings in the Lithuanian authorities’ response, according to Kęstutis Budrys, President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief national security adviser.
“Certain gaps have been exposed and certain identified lessons have to be learnt,” he told the Žiniu Radijas radio station on Tuesday.
Lithuania needs unified response protocols for all institutions and clearer instructions from the police, according to Budrys.
“The collective understanding that we can face such practices has to be elevated to a new level,” he said.
Last Friday, schools and kindergartens across Lithuania received 900 bomb threats, all of which proved to be hoaxes.
On Monday night, institutions across Lithuania, including schools and kindergartens, received additional threats about explosives planted on their premises.
The State Security Department said on Friday that the bomb threats appeared to be “a targeted and coordinated attack carried out at the initiative of hostile states”.
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