Ghent School Evacuated Over Shooting, Bomb Threat
A secondary school in the Belgian city of Ghent was evacuated on Friday morning after online threats referencing a possible shooting and a bomb, with investigators suspecting the messages were sent from a hacked pupil account. About 400 pupils from Richtpunt Campus Gent Henleykaai were moved to the nearby STAM city museum while police searched the buildings.
According to VRT NWS, teachers discovered the threatening messages when they opened Smartschool, the digital platform widely used in Flemish schools. The province of East Flanders, which runs the school, was alerted immediately, and management and staff began the evacuation.
What Happened
The messages are believed to have been sent from the compromised account of a pupil, referring to a possible shooting that afternoon as well as a bomb alert.
“There is a suspicion that a pupil’s account was hacked. And from that account, messages were sent about a possible shooting at school this afternoon, but also a bomb alert,” said Kurt Moens, the province of East Flanders’ deputy for education and a member of the N-VA party.
Pupils in the third grade were allowed to leave and go home, and the province informed parents about the evacuation. The surrounding streets were cordoned off while police, who had not publicly confirmed the specifics of the threat, swept the buildings and classrooms.
Moens praised how the incident was handled. “The evacuation went very well. We took it seriously right away,” he said.
Background and Context
The school is part of the Richtpunt network of provincial schools, a secondary institution on Henleykaai in Ghent. Together with the adjacent hairdressing school, the site accommodates more than 850 pupils, according to the official school website.
Such evacuations are not unprecedented in Flanders. In May 2026, a school in Sint-Niklaas was briefly evacuated after a bomb alert; police with explosives-detection dogs searched the campus and found nothing, and prosecutors said they had identified a minor as a suspect, VRT NWS reported. In that case, authorities described the alert as probably false. Flemish schools have periodically been cleared over false bomb and shooting threats in recent years, and some have led to prosecutions.
Smartschool, the standard digital communication platform in Flemish education, has become an established vector for such threats, with hacked pupil or staff accounts used to circulate alarming messages. Schools have increasingly adopted a “stay calm, act fast” playbook when confronting them.
Analysis and Implications
The incident highlights a recurring challenge for Belgian schools: balancing a duty to treat credible threats seriously against the disruption caused by hoaxes. The swift relocation of hundreds of pupils to a museum a short walk away reflects both the proximity of the STAM to the campus and a practiced evacuation routine.
It also points to the vulnerability of school communication platforms. Because Smartschool accounts are a trusted internal channel, a single compromised login can appear authoritative to staff opening messages during the morning rush, prompting rapid escalation even before the threat’s credibility is assessed.
What’s Next
The province said it would await the outcome of the police check before deciding whether the school could reopen the same day. “At the moment the spaces have been checked and nothing is found, we might be able to start again. But I don’t want to make premature statements,” Moens said.
As of the latest update, no suspicious items had been reported found. It remained unclear how the pupil’s account was compromised, whether the threat was genuine or a hoax, and whether a suspect would be identified or prosecuted. Police had not publicly confirmed the shooting or bomb specifics, and investigations were continuing.