Police Believe Overseas Sources Behind Bomb Threats That Shuttered NZ Schools

An extensive string of emails alleging that bombs had been planted at schools and hospitals in New Zealand, persisting for several months, may have originated from abroad, according to police investigations.

Starting in November 2023 and extending into January 2024, emails described by authorities as “concerning” were received nationwide. From the onset, police suspected they were from a single source and assigned cybercrime detectives to trace the origin.

While they did not disclose the names of the targeted institutions, the public nature of school evacuations meant that some information became known.

The first wave of emails targeted 15 institutions on November 23, 2023.

St Kentigern’s College in Auckland was the first to respond, notifying parents via text to pick up their children. The school’s website affirmed that it was implementing emergency evacuation protocols.

Orewa College and at least two primary schools also shut down, with one confirming the closure was due to a bomb threat.

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Health New Zealand confirmed that while hospital facilities had been threatened, they remained operational with security and medical personnel exercising heightened vigilance.

Police conducted searches at Wellington, Burwood (Christchurch), Auckland City, Middlemore public hospitals, as well as Bowen private hospital in Wellington.

“We want to assure the affected organizations that police are taking this matter seriously, and we understand that today has been unsettling,” a police spokesperson stated.

Three-Month Campaign

It is estimated that approximately 70 threats were made in November alone. This trend continued through December and into January, with police indicating that investigations into the origin were ongoing, resulting in more school closures.

When the emails ceased, public interest in the investigation diminished, leading police to stop providing updates.

However, in response to an Official Information Act (OIA) request, they disclosed that over 200 threats had been received during the three-month period, prompting the launch of Operation Armidale to investigate.

“The threats targeted a wide range of organizations including hospitals, courthouses, private businesses, hotels, and numerous primary and secondary schools throughout New Zealand,” they confirmed.

Common characteristics across the emails suggested they originated from the same source—the phrasing employed in the threats, the nature of the threats themselves, and the methods used to deliver them to the victim organizations.

It appeared that the email addresses of the targeted institutions had been gathered from publicly accessible online resources.

However, police were ultimately unable to trace the origins of the threats.

Their OIA response indicated that “Police were unable to identify the source of the threats or the individuals responsible, partly due to their use of widely available tactics to obscure their identities and locations.”

They dismissed speculation that the campaign was timed to coincide with New Zealand exam periods, noting that the end date in January 2024 was well after the conclusion of the exam season, continuing even through the Christmas holidays.

“Many of the threat messages were received well after deadlines had passed since school staff were on holiday and not monitoring emails.”

Offenders Lacked Local Knowledge

During this timeframe, police also noted that the North American academic calendar was still active, suggesting the offenders were not local and assumed that the southern hemisphere’s school holidays corresponded with those in the north.

The diversity of organizations targeted and the nature of the threats further indicated that exam disruption was not the objective.

For example, in 2022, a female student sent fake bomb threats to Otago University, claiming greater destruction than the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks to prevent her parents from discovering she was not graduating.

In the 2023/24 campaign, “The methods used and the wording of the threats align closely with publicly available information from online groups motivated by terrorism or nihilistic ideologies,” police reported.

In March this year, another set of threatening emails targeted two schools, prompting a lockdown, as well as specific police stations, several news outlets, and Parliament.