112 emergency number was overloaded with calls during bomb threat mass email attack
The Emergeny Center (Hairekeskus), which manages the 112 emergency number in Estonia, experienced a serious overload Thursday in the wake of a mass spam email attack issuing bomb threats to a variety of institutions, including schools, Postimees reports on its English-language page.
Pirko Parila, chief of operations at the PPA's North Prefecture, said: "There may have been a point in time when all those who discovered this email called the emergency response center at once," adding that since that point in time passed, there will be no setting up of a separate, dedicated line.
A screenshot of a group chat on social media threatening to actually detonate bombs in public buildings in Estonia on Friday circulated widely on the internet the preceding day, while the group boasted about this "plan."
The police are aware of the post and the ensuing online chat, Parila said, adding that there were no plans for schools to close Friday.
Hundreds of institutions, public bodies and businesses were hit by a late-night Wednesday/early-morning Thursday wave of emails, written in poor Russian and seeming to issue a bomb threat.
In addition to schools and kindergartens, recipients included Tallinn Airport, and the central bus and train stations.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Postimees
