French teenager detained over international spate of school bomb threats
French police are reportedly questioning a teenager in relation to a campaign of bomb threats made to schools in several countries, including Australia.
Vincent Lauton, an 18-year-old who was arrested at his home in a village near Dijon, has been described as 'a sophisticated computer operative,’ the Daily Mail reported.
He is reportedly being questioned by police in relation to mass hoax bomb calls that have been made to schools across France, the UK, the US, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Australia.
Many of the calls were automated phone messages warning of a ‘bomb’ on school grounds, leading to the buildings being evacuated and thousands of students' classes being affected.
No devices were found during any of the alerts.
The Daily Mail said it had carried out an investigation into Mr Lauton and found he was the administrator of the darkness.su domain, which it says hoaxers from the ‘Evacuators 2K16’ group were hiding behind.
‘Evacuators 2K16’ is an anonymous hoax group that claimed credit for a string of calls that shut down UK and French schools.
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Through social media, the group calls on students who ‘want to get out of school for a day’ to contact them with ‘bomb threat requests’.
The Daily Mail claimed the group, using Lauton’s site, planned to start charging for its ‘services’ for as little as $5.
France is in a state of emergency that was declared in the wake of the series of jihadist shootings and bombings that killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
AAP reported that the 18-year-old arrested by French police on Monday was tracked down through his Internet IP address.
He was transferred to Paris while investigators tried to establish the extent of his involvement in the hoax bomb threats.
Police and investigation sources said computer equipment that the suspect had used were taken away for examination.
