3 schools evacuated in France over bomb alerts-Xinhua - 新华网

PARIS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three schools in France were evacuated Thursday following bomb alerts, which were later found to be false, French media reported.

According to French daily Le Parisien, the evacuations took place at three educational institutions in Marseille in southern France, in Morez in eastern France, and Laon, a town in northeastern France.

The French Ministry of National Education confirmed to Le Parisien that three bomb alerts were reported on Thursday, but ruled out any "mass phenomenon."

President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France was "very vigilant" in the face of the "epidemic of bomb alerts and threats."

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit in the Irish capital of Dublin, he said there was not yet sufficient evidence to attribute responsibility for the threats, adding that foreign powers could not yet be identified as behind them.

The incidents come amid a broader wave of bomb threats across Europe in recent days. In Italy, a series of schools received bomb threat emails, with the provisional figure standing at 1,803 institutions, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. ■