A 16-year-old student was arrested for making a false bomb threat outside of Paris, according to police sources, as French officials work to put an end to a week of bomb scares at airports, schools, and landmarks.
The spate of empty bomb threats has shocked a country that has been on high alert since Hamas’s attack on Israel, the accompanying Gaza conflict, and the fatal stabbing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras last week.
The adolescent was arrested Thursday in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, a town northwest of Paris, for making an emailed bomb threat.
Around 1,200 people, including a thousand students, had been evacuated from the Jean Perrin high school where the suspect was a student.
No explosives were found following an examination of the site, and the teenager’s exact motive remained unclear.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said authorities had made 18 arrests over false bomb threats on Wednesday and Thursday.
Most of France’s major airports outside Paris were targeted, leading to evacuations, hours-long delays, and dozens of canceled flights.
On Friday, France’s Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said that 22 probes had been launched in connection with the false alarms.
“There will obviously be convictions, we cannot let this happen,” Dupond-Moretti told broadcaster RTL.
He reiterated his pledge to crack down on “little jokers who have no sense of responsibility.”
“The parents must be there and I remind you that it is the parents who will pay the financial consequences,” added Dupond-Moretti.
Offenders risk two years in prison and a 30,000-euro ($31,700) fine.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau warned that the punishment could be even more severe, adding that such bomb threats will now be considered a form of premeditated “psychological violence.”
Speaking to French newspaper Le Parisien, Beccuau said that such an offense is punishable by three years in prison and a 45,000-euro fine.
“Minors will be brought before a juvenile judge,” added Beccuau.