Croatia: what's behind the bomb threats?
Croatia has faced a flood of bomb threats over the past week. Hospitals, shopping centres, editorial offices, airports, schools and kindergartens have had to be evacuated and searched more than 700 times – but in each case no explosives were found. The national press talks of a systematic attack on state and society.
Hybrid war posing as exam avoidance
The country is helpless in the face of these attacks, Telegram laments:
“It's a particularly sensitive time for schools, because the final big exams are underway. ... Missing lessons because of bomb threats is becoming increasingly problematic. ... And it is also slicing into working hours, and, at shopping centres, profits. Not to mention the extra work for the police and bomb difusal units. The sheer number of bomb threats indicates that we are not simply dealing with teenagers trying to avoid exams here. If this is a hybrid war, then Croatia is losing it right now. Big time.”
System intact but crippled
Croatia is suffering very real damage, Večernji list observes:
“It is becoming increasingly likely that this is an organised hybrid attack rather than some mentally disturbed individual. ... What we are seeing is a combination of digital tools with psychological and social repercussions. Although no technical damage is being done to the systems, the threats are having a very real impact: evacuations, interrupted school lessons, a growing sense of insecurity – similar to the effect a 'normal' cyberattack can have on society. But here the system is not technically collapsing but rather being overloaded to the point of paralysis.”