School attendance falls after bomb hoax, with some Glasgow schools half empty
Many parents kept children at home on Tuesday despite police confirming Monday's threatening emails were a hoax.
A Glasgow secondary school. File photo. · Photograph: Michal Klajban (CC BY-SA 4.0)
School attendance dropped sharply across Scotland on Tuesday, a day after hoax bomb threats were emailed to schools.
Glasgow City Council said some of its schools had 50% fewer pupils than normal. East Ayrshire reported 4,881 pupils absent, compared with 1,600 at the start of the month, and Midlothian said its absence rate was 21.5%, against 6.9% on the same day last year.
Police Scotland has said the messages are being treated as a hoax and there is nothing to suggest any threat to the public. Its Cyber and Fraud Unit is working to find the source. Hundreds of people contacted police after the emails arrived on Monday.
Edinburgh's education convener James Dalgleish urged parents to talk to their children to ease their fears and to contact schools with any concerns.
Similar hoax emails were sent to around 300 schools in Northern Ireland.