The offices of Irish media groups including national broadcaster RTÉ were evacuated on Friday after bomb threats, in a new spread of the hoax-threat wave that has disrupted European aviation all week, Reuters reported from Dublin.

Source: Reuters

An RTÉ radio reporter said a threat was emailed to the broadcaster shortly before 0900 GMT warning that a bomb would go off within 45 minutes. RTÉ's campus at Donnybrook in south Dublin was cleared, Gardaí (Irish police) and an armed support unit searched the site building by building, and news programming went out from an outside broadcast unit after more than an hour off air. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin spoke to RTÉ by telephone shortly after its broadcasts resumed.

Newstalk and Today FM staff were also evacuated from Marconi House in central Dublin, interrupting presenter Claire Byrne's programme. Programming resumed at 1000 GMT after staff were told they could return; Byrne told listeners the warning her station received had been deemed a hoax. The Irish Independent's publisher Mediahuis evacuated Independent House on Talbot Street, with staff back by mid-morning, and Virgin Media's Ballymount site was also reported evacuated.

Source: Adworld / RadioToday Ireland

RTÉ said in a statement: "RTÉ, along with a range of media organisations, received a threat this morning. In line with our security and safety protocols, the campus has been evacuated and some services are affected. Gardaí are on site in Donnybrook." An Garda Síochána confirmed it was liaising with the Irish media organisations and investigating threats made against media organisations in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. The alerts came ahead of European leaders' meetings due in Dublin next week under Ireland's EU Presidency.

Flight diverted to Venice

Also on Friday, a Wizz Air flight from Prague to Rome was diverted to Venice and landed there at around 10 a.m. because of a bomb scare, an airport authority source told Reuters. Italy's ANSA news agency earlier reported the alert had come by phone call to Rome Fiumicino airport's control tower, but the airport source denied that version. LaPresse reported the warning had instead reached the Czech authorities by telephone, and that initial reports suggested no link to the emailed threats made against flights on Thursday — investigations were continuing.

Source: Reuters / LaPresse

Friday's alerts are a new development in the same wave Awaaz Punjab reported on Thursday, when hoax bomb threats disrupted more than two dozen passenger flights across Europe, forcing unplanned landings and fighter-jet escorts. Read the earlier story: 25 flights hit by hoax bomb threats on Thursday

A presenter on RTÉ Radio One's mid-morning news show said he understood Friday's email purported to be from the same people behind Thursday's flight threats. That claim has not been confirmed by police, and Italian reporting on the Venice diversion pointed the other way — so who is behind the week's threats, and whether Friday's alerts are all connected, remains unestablished.

No device was reported found in any of Friday's incidents and no injuries were reported. Police investigations in Ireland, Italy and the Czech Republic are continuing; European airports and broadcasters remain on heightened alert after a week in which threats have repeatedly — and so far falsely — closed airspace and buildings.