Nearly 70 false bomb threats have targeted French airports since Wednesday, Transport Minister Clément Beaune said on Sunday, October 22. There were “fortunately much less yesterday, Saturday, the first day of departure on vacation for many French people”, declared Mr. Beaune, guest of the program “Political Questions” (France Inter, France TV, Le Monde) .

“Since Wednesday, it is almost always the same email address that is used, located outside the European Union [EU], in Switzerland,” he added, suggesting that this put the authors of this “typical email that looks the same from one day to the next” beyond the reach of certain sanctions in the EU.

He invited hosting sites to help the French authorities: “Everyone has a responsibility, including platforms and social networks, to not support this type of attack and to cooperate as quickly as possible with the French civil aviation and our justice. »

Sixty ongoing investigations

In addition to airports, certain public establishments are particularly targeted. The Palace of Versailles announced its temporary evacuation on Sunday for the seventh time in nine days. A suspect was arrested on Friday for the only alert issued by telephone concerning the castle, the others having been posted on a government website, according to police sources.

The alerts concerning airports are the work not “of little jokers” but of “big idiots or even serious delinquents”, underlined the minister. Regarding their motivation, “there can be a mixture between people who make bad jokes, who want to scare for real, and sometimes also a kind of competition in stupidity between hackers”, he suggested.

Sending false alerts is “extremely dangerous” because it mobilizes security forces “for several hours” and forces an evacuation “in some cases, so that people gather outside, which is also a problem security”, recalled the minister. He said he had asked each airport, for each alert received by e-mail or call, to systematically file a complaint. In total, “more than 60 investigations, all locations combined, have been launched,” he said.