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Bomb threat against Catholic girls’ school

The police were called to the school.(Bild: Constantin Handl)

There were again bomb threats in Linz on Monday: This time the AHS Kreuzschwesternschule and the Grillparzer Volksschule (VS 10) were hit. The e-mails with the bomb threat had already been sent during the night. Hundreds of pupils were evacuated and allowed to go home or be picked up. No explosive device was found.

According to the police, the management of the Kreuzschwestern school reacted in an exemplary manner and immediately sent all pupils home. The building complex was investigated - no explosive device or similar was found. The children of the Grillparzer elementary school (VS 10) were temporarily taken to the neighboring Hamerling grammar school. There had also been bomb threats in Vienna and Graz on Monday morning.

(Bild: Constantin Handl)

Was it the Swiss again?
It is not yet known whether the threatener is once again the mentally ill young Swiss man who had already kept the police busy in the fall with a total of 27 anonymous bomb threats.

Pupils remain calm
The pupils, especially the older ones, remained calm: "A teacher came in and told us that we had received a bomb threat against the school. The upper grades were allowed to go home on their own, the lower grades had to wait," explains A-level student Lisa Wolkerstorfer from AHS Kreuzschwestern. "Because there have already been so many bomb threats, we weren't really worried. On top of that, we were told at the beginning that the police hadn't found anything." 

Parents more nervous than pupils
The lower school pupils were all taken to the school's neighboring after-school care center, where their parents were allowed to pick them up under the watchful eyes of the police officers. While many of the parents appeared noticeably nervous, the pupils seemed more excited and pleased about the shortened but particularly exciting school day.

Exam anxiety threat pointless
Schools are due to return to normal on Tuesday. If the threatening email against the AHS Kreuzschwestern was not sent from Switzerland after all, but out of exam anxiety, it would have been a futile attempt: "I don't know whether there was a test or school work on the agenda in any class. But someone asked a teacher what would happen in this case," says the A-level student. "She just said that the exam would have been interrupted and would have taken place another time." It remains to be hoped that the country will not be hit by another wave of bomb threats.