Teenager Arrested Over Mass School Bomb Hoax

A teenager believed to be at the centre of a Minecraft gamers feud was arrested following an attack on a massive bomb shut down hundreds of colleges and schools across the UK.

The 19-year-old was detained by Hertfordshire police after some 24,000 threats were sent out to schools, warning of an impending bomb attack unless cash was handed over.

The emails were faked to appear as if they were sent by a gaming platform called VeltPvP. VeltPvP, an online Minecraft player-versus-player server is the same type of service that businesses use to sell their products to gamers.

A teenager thought to be at the heart of the Minecraft gamers' dispute was detained following an explosion that shut down hundreds of schools across the UK. Freezing a moment The 19-year-old was arrested by Hertfordshire police after 24,000 emails were sent out to schools warning of an impending attack

These emails were sent to disable VeltPvP and were intended to cause the domain's abuse to be suspended.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has stated that there was no real threat to the emails that were received this week.

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They said they understood the concerns of parents and teachers however, they stressed that there was not a credible threat from the emails that were sent to schools.

"However we take the communications extremely seriously. We cannot comment further since this is an ongoing investigation.

The signs were placed outside Cardinal Road School in Feltham in the aftermath of the bomb hoax emails

The dispute was based on the belief that rivals had engaged in illegal activities to stop each other from conducting business.

When asked whether he regretted the impact the letters had on the schoolchildren who were forced to evacuate, one of the hoaxers said, "It is terrible, it's not the most pleasant thing."

Placing the blame on VeltPvP, the hoaxer said that the network was involved in a series of Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks - which he claims were used to attempt to stop other rival Minecraft servers.

Following the bomb hoax email threat, parents were urged to return their children to their homes.

In an official statement, VeltPvP said: 'We've been harassed by a group of cybercriminals that are trying to smear us in any way that they can.

"We are deeply sorry for anyone who has been affected by this, but we just want to let you know that it is fake."

More than 400 schools and colleges across the country received the email that claimed a bomb had been planted and would explode in the event that cash wasn't given.

Cardinal Road School, Feltham West London was one of the schools to receive the fake email.

Police forces in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Bedfordshire and the the North East were among those investigating.

Parents have requested to be allowed to pick up their children from school due concerns about the emails.

Six schools in Hertfordshire were also affected: Abbots Hill, Valley School, Stevenage, The Sele School, Duncombe School, Stanborough School, Watford, St Albans High School, and Valley School.