Bomb alerts in a Le Mans college: an 11-year-old child summoned by the prosecution

An eleven-year-old child was implicated by investigators in a series of bomb threats received by a college in Le Mans, the prosecutor’s office announced on Friday. The child and his parents were summoned. “The Pierre Gilles de Gennes college in Le Mans received five successive emails this week announcing the presence of a bomb within the establishment. The evacuation of the rooms was immediately ordered, and the classes were canceled,” recalls the Le Mans public prosecutor’s office in a press release.

The technical investigations went back to the equipment from which these messages were sent and “the elements collected make it possible to attribute these messages to a very young girl, aged 11,” continues the prosecution.

“His very young age does not allow criminal proceedings to be initiated against him. She is summoned before the public prosecutor at the beginning of next week, in the company of her parents,” explains the press release.

Parental civil liability

The prosecution emphasizes that “his criminal irresponsibility in no way hinders the implementation of the civil liability of his parents, from whom any person or structure may request compensation for the damage suffered,” he concludes.

Since the start of the school year, the Paris police headquarters has had to deal with a 25% increase in false bomb threats and intrusions into schools, according to its spokesperson. Which gives rise, each time, to the opening of investigations to find the authors of these hoaxes. The phenomenon goes beyond Île-de-France: several establishments in Arras, in the Lyon academy and in Nice had to be evacuated, including a nursery school.