Irish media outlets evacuated after receiving threats

A number of high-profile media organisations, including Ireland's public service broadcaster RTÉ, were evacuated because of bomb threats on Friday morning.

Staff at the Irish Independent newspaper and Dublin-based radio station NewstalkFM also left their offices for a short time after receiving threats by email.

The Irish government has described the bomb warnings as "hoax threats" and said the authorities were "working to establish who is responsible".

Security threats were also sent to several media outlets across Europe on Friday, including the UK broadcaster Sky.

The threats disrupted some live programme in Ireland, while other broadcasters managed to stay on air.

Armed gardaí (Irish police) were deployed to search RTÉ's headquarters in Donnybrook, Dublin, after senior staff reported the bomb threat to them.

RTÉ presenter Sarah McInerney was broadcasting at the time.

"An email had been sent to the RTÉ newsroom at 08:33 with the subject line: 'Message to the West and it had threatened that a bomb was going to go off in the next 45 minutes," she said.

"The newsroom contacted management, who contacted the gardaí and after some discussion it was decided that even through it was probably a hoax, it was better to evacuate."

Virgin Media Ireland said it also "received a security threat email that was widely circulated to multiple European media platforms".

"We followed our well established security protocols and continue to liaise with An Garda Síochána.

"We remained on air throughout and no evacuation took place."

The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin described situation as "worrying" adding his government's first priority was the safety of the Irish public.

"Yesterday, there appeared to be coordinated efforts to disrupt air travel," he said.

He was referring to hoax bomb threats which affected 21 flights across Europe on Thursday, including Ryanair and Aer Lingus planes.

Martin told RTÉ it was not yet known if the threats had come from individuals or if it was a "coordinated attack".

"The gardaí, the defence forces, cyber and aviation authorities are working to establish who's behind this, as are their European counterparts," Martin said.

He added: "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."

Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Simon Harris said it was a "very serious and evolving situation".

"Obviously this comes on the back of a number of bomb scares yesterday and in recent days in relation to airlines as well," he told Cork 96FM.

"I think it's fair to say we don't yet know who is responsible for what's happening this morning."

He said Irish authorities and cyber experts would be "liaising as appropriate with European counterparts" to identify the culprits.

Broadcaster Sky confirmed it had received a security threat, hours after RTÉ had evacuated its building.

The broadcaster, which is owned by Comcast, said in a statement read by a presenter on its news channel that the broadcaster had "carried out a security assessment and reported the matter to the relevant authorities".

"The safety and security of our colleagues is our primary concern, and we are working closely with authorities to ensure our people and operations remain secure."

Returning to her microphone at NewstalkFM, presenter Claire Byrne told listeners the threat her station received had been judged to be fake.

"Just like many other media organisations in Ireland today we were advised to leave the building today on foot of a message that we received.

"We've been in touch with the gardaí - everybody left. We were advised that we could return to the building and that that warning was a hoax."

On the social media platform X, NewstalkFM said: "Bauer Media offices were evacuated this morning after receiving a hoax bomb threat.

"We can report that everyone is safe and we are back on air as normal."

In a statement, gardaí (Irish police) said they were "aware of a threat made against media organisations here and in Europe".

They added they were liaising with the affected Irish media organisations and the threats would be investigated.