Garda members work outside the offices of Irish National broadcaster RTE after staff were evacuated from the site following a bomb threat in Donnybrook, Dublin, Ireland, November 6, 2026.
An email received by Nova and RTE warned that an explosive device had been planted inside their buildings and would detonate within 45 minutes. “It will detonate in 45 minutes. Threats were reported by Irish broadcaster RTE, Britain’s Sky and Bulgarian private channel Nova TV, among others.
“We want the whole world to know about us, which is why one of our operatives has planted an explosive device in your building,” the email read. The email’s title, “MESSAGE TO THE WEST”, also echoed the title of a biography of the former Soviet leader, “New Challenge to the West”. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said European security agencies had not yet established whether the threats targeting air travel and media organisations were being made by individuals or were part of a coordinated attack. “It just illustrates how relatively simple it can be to cause disruption and to undermine the normal operation of society through unconventional activities of this kind, which are designed to cause disruption, designed to cause fear and anxiety,” Martin told RTE radio shortly after news programming resumed from an outside broadcasting unit. “We have to remain calm,” he added.
The threats were eventually called a hoax. At RTE, some programmes were replaced by music and a pre-recorded message, with the disruption lasting up to three hours. The clock is ticking. “But this is only the beginning. What happened this week is just a small part of what awaits Europe in the near future,” the message added. The purported sender shared a surname with Yuri Andropov, a former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It remains unclear whether these references point to Russian involvement or were intended to direct suspicion towards Moscow. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Television broadcasters across Europe witnessed a Pandemonium on Friday after receiving bomb threats in emails titled ‘MESSAGE TO THE WEST’, prompting evacuations and suspension of programming.
Emails sent to RTE and Nova were signed by Mikhail Andropov, who claimed to be one of the leaders of a group responsible for this week’s plane-related hoaxes.
Broadcasting continued uninterrupted, and employees returned to their desks, the broadcaster said. Police evacuated and searched Nova’s newsroom in Sofia before declaring the premises safe. At RTE, staff returned to the campus after police completed a search lasting more than three hours. The threats came amid a series of hoax bomb alerts targeting passenger flights across Europe in recent days. Flights from Serbia to Finland, Spain and other destinations have faced diversions, emergency landings and security checks, although no explosives have been found so far. Friday’s incidents also came against the backdrop of growing concerns over hacking scams and cyberattacks in recent weeks, including attacks on supermarkets. The identity of those behind Friday’s threats remains unclear.