On September 3, 2026, students from at least three schools in Dzerzhinsk were evacuated: the school named after Aleksandr Molev, School No. 2, and School No. 32. The evacuation took place against the backdrop of a wave of bomb threat reports targeting educational institutions across the Nizhny Novgorod Region, which had begun on September 1.[1]

Course of Events

According to information circulated on social media by local blogger Aleksey Alekseyev, the first alarm was raised at the Molev school. Students were led out of the building and sent home; some pupils' personal belongings were left inside.[2] Evacuations subsequently took place at two more institutions — School No. 2 and School No. 32.[1] Emergency services were on the scene.[3]

The school named after Aleksandr Molev had only just moved into a new building: the official opening ceremony was held on September 1, and the facility is designed to accommodate 1,100 students.[2]

City authorities had not announced any official reason for the evacuations at the time the first reports appeared; the Dzerzhinsk administration declined to comment on the situation.[2][1] Newsroom24 noted that there were no formal grounds to link the events of September 3 specifically to the bomb threat reports until confirmed information became available.[2]

Context

A wave of bomb-threat reports swept across Nizhny Novgorod Region beginning on 1 September 2026. On Knowledge Day, several educational institutions in the region received such threats, and a number of them were evacuated. A bomb threat was also received the same day by Corporation for the Development of the Nizhny Novgorod Region: employees were first led outside, then switched to remote work.[4] A similar wave of threats on 1 September struck the neighboring Ivanovo Region, where reports came in to more than 30 commercial and social institutions.[4] That same day, 3 September, three schools were evacuated in Saint Petersburg as well.[5]

The NN.RU editorial team attempted to obtain an official comment by calling all three evacuated schools, but none of the numbers were answered.[6]

An NN.RU source within the security services confirmed that on 1 September, schools in Nizhny Novgorod and the region received bomb-threat messages.[6]

Sources

  1. Zhivyom v Nizhnem — Students from three schools evacuated in Dzerzhinsk on 3 September — Zhivyom v Nizhnem (archive)
  2. Newsroom24 — Three schools evacuated in Dzerzhinsk on 3 September (archive)
  3. Otkrytyy Nizhniy — At least three schools evacuated in Dzerzhinsk on 3 September (archive)
  4. Zhivyom v Nizhnem — Several Nizhny Novgorod schools evacuated following bomb-threat reports — Zhivyom v Nizhnem (archive)
  5. aif.ru — Three schools evacuated in St. Petersburg: News from Russia, 3 September (archive)
  6. NN.RU — The NN.RU editorial team attempted to obtain an official comment by calling all three evacuated schools, but none of the numbers were answered.