On Sunday, threats against schools in the capital began circulating on Telegram, an app particularly popular among the Russian-speaking population.

"This message was intended to disrupt school operations and sow fear and panic /.../ We ask parents to remain calm and trust only official information," the Tallinn Department of Education said in a statement.

Similar waves of threats against schools have occurred before, and these have been traced back to information operations originating from Russia.

"We have seen these repeatedly over the years. These kinds of bomb threat waves have the goal of creating chaos or uncertainty. But today we can say that the threat level has not increased," said PPA Director General Egert Belitšev on Monday.

The police chief said it is well-known that disinformation is spread via Telegram. Parents should be aware of the environments their children are spending time in.

"Criminals use it, as do saboteurs commissioned by the Russian Federation to share information. It's definitely a space I have yet to see anything good come from," he said.

Kaarel Rundu, head of the Tallinn Education Department, said nearly a dozen schools in Tallinn received letters threatening them with violence on Sunday.

Closing schools on Monday was not considered, but two schools decided to switch to distance learning instead, he said, as reported by news portal Delfi.

There was also an increased police presence near educational institutions.

"We're keeping an extra watch on school buildings and their surroundings. We've also provided schools with instructions on how to act in such situations and how to ensure safety," North Prefecture operations chief Urmas Tuisk said.

"And our recommendation to schools was to inform parents so they could explain to their children the consequences of making and sharing threats of violence. This is a serious crime," Rundu said.

Incident at the Polytechnic School

The threats do not appear to be connected to another incident that took place Monday afternoon at the Tallinn Polytechnic School (Tallinna Polütehnikum) on Pärnu maantee, the PPA has said.

At 12:15 p.m., police received a report that a student had been seen handing over a possible weapon-like object to another student. The two young men were detained, identified and questioned. By 2:00 p.m., police officers had started to leave the scene.

"We also found an air gun near the school building, and we are now working to determine whether this is the object resembling a weapon that we were alerted about," Tuisk told ERR.

Tallinn Polytechnic School Director Kalle Sammal told Postimees the treats made over the weekend had not reached the school. Asked by Postimees to describe the situation in the late afternoon, he said: "The situation is under control and everything is fine."

On Monday evening, Ats Kübarsepp, the PPA's Northern Prefect, said it is too early to say for certain if the incident at the school and the threats are linked: "But today we do not see that there is a connection between them," he told Postimees.

He also could not say who was spreading the threats: "We cannot even say for sure where they started spreading from. We can say today that they did not originate from Estonia."

The official stressed to parents that children do not need to stay home. "I'm sending my son to school tomorrow, and I think all parents understand that no one would send their child to school if it were dangerous," Kübarsepp said.

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