European authorities are facing growing pressure to establish a coordinated security response following a spate of bomb threats targeting schools, airlines, media organisations and other public facilities across the continent.

The threats, largely delivered through emails, have so far proved to be false alarms but have disrupted public activities, affected more than 50 flights and triggered evacuations across several countries.

Italy recorded threats against about 6,300 schools on Wednesday and another 3,778 on Thursday, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of educational institutions.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged parents to remain calm, proposing new evacuation protocols to prevent unnecessary school closures based solely on mass emails without concrete evidence of a threat.

The threats also disrupted air travel, forcing some airlines to divert flights, while Hungary and France deployed fighter jets to escort affected passenger aircraft.

József Váradi, chief executive of Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air, called for harmonised security measures across the continent and a possible Central European body to coordinate responses to such incidents.

He said he had recently held talks with European Commission officials to advocate a joint approach, noting that individual countries were reluctant to surrender their security responsibilities.

However, security analysts have warned that the fragmented response across European countries could delay investigations and allow perpetrators to exploit differences in national security procedures.

The incidents have raised suspicions of possible Russian involvement in a wider campaign aimed at destabilising European countries. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said there was insufficient evidence to attribute the threats to foreign powers.

Investigators have yet to establish whether the incidents are connected or orchestrated by a single individual, group or state-backed operation.

Authorities are now under pressure to strengthen cross-border intelligence sharing while ensuring that false alarms do not unnecessarily disrupt essential public services.