The black series continues. This Thursday, the airports of Nantes, Lille, Montpellier and Bordeaux had to be evacuated after threats of attacks received by email or telephone. Each time, it’s the same scenario: canine and mine clearance teams are mobilized to “remove doubts”. Meanwhile, traffic is interrupted and delays accumulate. The situation is all the more complicated as some of these airports had already been evacuated the day before. And they are not the only ones to suffer from these hoaxes. The Palace of Versailles evacuated 4,000 tourists for the fourth time in five days. The day before, the same decision was taken after the discovery, on the “My police station” platform, of a message indicating: “The castle is going to explode, you are all going to die”.
Museums, train stations, educational establishments… Since September, false alarms have increased. On Monday, the Minister of Education said that 168 false alarms had been recorded in schools since September. The figure is already obsolete. In Toulouse alone, six high schools were evacuated this Thursday morning. In Finistère, 33 establishments were targeted for Wednesday alone. In Paris and the inner suburbs, bomb threats have increased by 25% since September. “There is a mimicry effect. Unfortunately, we know that the more there are, the more the media talk about it and the more we will have. It’s a vicious circle,” notes a police source.
“In 99% of cases, it’s a smart guy”
In the vast majority of cases, threatening messages are directly addressed to establishments. “It is up to the directors to make the decision to evacuate the premises, which they do almost systematically,” assures Loubna Atta, spokesperson for the Paris police headquarters. There is an urgency to make a decision, they cannot procrastinate. » Especially since the “emergency attack” level – the highest of the Vigipirate plan – was declared just a few hours after the Arras attack. The police are therefore generally notified by the directors themselves. “Given the context, these alerts are taken very seriously and many resources are involved,” continues Loubna Atta.
Once the establishments have been evacuated, an initial visual survey is carried out. Minesweepers, trained dogs and sometimes even the Raid can be mobilized to remove doubts. What about crazy messages? “We know that in 99% of cases, it was a smart guy who did this. But we can’t afford to be in the 1% of cases, that’s the difficulty. It is the precautionary principle that takes precedence,” says a police source. And Loubna Atta insists: “We cannot act on the simple feeling that it is a joke. » Certainly, recognizes the first cited, the attacks are made to surprise the population and are therefore not “announced”. “But we can’t take any risks. » Especially since history has shown that terrorism can strike anywhere: at school, in a supermarket, on a train, a concert hall…
Each time, a judicial investigation is opened. Depending on the alert distribution channel, the police or gendarmes search for the perpetrators via their telephone number, their email or an IP address. Depending on the age of the perpetrator and level of sophistication, the investigation can be quite technical and sometimes takes several months. According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2022, 1,682 people – more than 57% of whom were aged 18 to 34 – were convicted of disclosing false information. “But these are not precise statistics,” we insist. This ranges from bomb threats to someone accusing their neighbor to harm them. »
Up to three years in prison
And the authors risk a lot. “The fact of communicating or disclosing false information with the aim of making people believe that destruction, damage or deterioration dangerous to people is going to be or has been committed is punishable by two years of imprisonment and 30,000 euros fine. “fine”, specifies article 322-14 of the Penal Code. The penalty is even increased to three years and a fine of 45,000 euros when you are involved in this threat. In short: if we say that a third party planted a bomb or if we even threaten to do so, the penalty incurred is different.
And if the threats are imaginary, the convictions are not symbolic. Thus, on September 1, a man was sentenced to sixteen months in prison, eight of which were closed, and his partner to twelve months suspended, for making people believe that a bomb was hidden in a Lille-Paris TGV. The Raid had to intervene, the train had been immobilized for several hours. Their goal in starting such a rumor? Slow down the departure of the train they were afraid of missing. In Rouen, on October 13, a very young adult was sentenced to 18 months in prison for 24 evacuations in 16 establishments since the start of the year. These 24 evacuations required the intervention of 161 police officers.
“There may also be claims for damages,” the Ministry of Justice said. They can come from companies that suffered the damage, or even from a person traumatized by the alert. » What did the students of the Gambetta high school – where Dominique Bernard was murdered – feel, for example, when they were forced to evacuate three days after the attack? We can easily imagine that this new alert caused particular anxiety in some. “We must prove the impact of this alert. This can involve medical certificates, for example,” we specify at Place Vendôme.