More flights in Europe were grounded on Friday and several newsrooms in Ireland were evacuated after they received bomb threats, a broadening of what Ireland’s government said was most likely a “coordinated campaign of disruption.”
Since earlier this week, bomb threats against more than two dozen flights in Europe have disrupted travel, with several planes forced to make emergency landings, including one from Ireland’s national carrier, Aer Lingus. Hungary’s defense minister said on Friday afternoon that military jets had escorted three passenger planes that had received threats out of the country’s airspace.
No explosives have been found on any of the affected flights, according to officials, and the newsrooms in Ireland were found to be safe, but the flurry of threats has caused alarm, prompted a significant security response and raised concern in European capitals about who is responsible.
Ireland is set to host dozens of European leaders in its capital, Dublin, next week, and the threats have raised questions about security risks.
On Friday morning, the offices of Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, as well as those of the Newstalk radio station and the Irish Independent newspaper were evacuated for a time for security checks after they received threatening emails. Later in the day, Sky News, a British broadcaster, said that it had also received a security threat.
“It is not known yet who is responsible for these threats, whether it is individuals or a centralized or coordinated effort,” the Irish government said in a statement on Friday. “However, these threats come on the heels of the ongoing disruption to aviation around Europe caused by similar threats, and it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption.”
The Irish government added that the police and military were working in cooperation with the country’s cyber and aviation authorities to establish who was responsible for the threats, as well as with their European security counterparts.
While the bomb threats against flights have so far been determined to be hoaxes, they have come after a series of malicious attacks that caused disruption.
A number of European countries have been affected by suspected cyberattacks on supermarket fridges and freezers, including France in October and Ireland, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg this week. And on Wednesday, France said that a cyberattack had targeted blood banks by raising the temperatures in storage refrigerators.
Ireland is currently hosting the rotating presidency of the European Union, and as a result, European leaders have been traveling there since July for a series of meetings. Next week, they are set to gather in Dublin for a meeting of the European Political Community on Thursday and an informal meeting of E.U. heads of state or government on Friday.
It would be the largest gathering of heads of state that Ireland has ever hosted, with around 50 European leaders and heads of international organizations expected to attend next Thursday and Friday.
Barry Andrews, an Irish member of the European Parliament, said that while there was not enough evidence to draw the conclusion that Russia was behind the most recent threats, the series of incidents raised the possibility of state-sponsored interference.
“Here in Brussels, and across the European Union, there are lots of people who are already worried that we’re at a state of hybrid war with Russia,” Mr. Andrews said on Thursday in an interview with The New York Times.
There were disruptions in Denmark last year when that country hosted the E.U. presidency, including a reported drone incursion into its airspace. And there have long been concerns about Ireland’s security gaps, which the country scrambled to address before the European meetings.
Ireland has maintained that it is prepared to deal with the risks. The police and security for next week’s meetings in Dublin will be the biggest that Ireland has ever undertaken, according to An Garda Síochána, the country’s police service.
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels.
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