Up to three years in prison

This is what the amok caller faces after large-scale operation

The school was evacuated after the threatening call, and emergency services - including Cobra officers - searched the building.(Bild: fotokerschi.at/Klaus Mader)

A false alarm at a secondary school in Garsten, Upper Austria, led to a large-scale police operation on Monday. A caller threatened the principal with a killing spree. The search for the perpetrator continues. Similar incidents in Upper Austria ended up in court.

Whoever is behind the threatening call at the secondary school in Garsten must reckon with the fact that this supposed joke could have far-reaching consequences for them. As reported, the entire school building was evacuated on Monday after the principal received a phone call threatening to go on a rampage. The emergency services naturally took the alarm seriously, the building was evacuated and subsequently searched. Nothing was found. But the investigation continued the next day.

Estonian telephone number used
Attempts were made to trace the call - an Estonian number and a computer-generated voice were used. After all, it was a dangerous threat.

Section 107(2) of the Criminal Code states: "Whoever commits a dangerous threat by threatening death, substantial mutilation or conspicuous disfigurement, kidnapping, arson, endangerment by nuclear energy, ionizing radiation or explosives, or destruction of economic existence or social position, or by placing the person threatened or another against whom the violence or dangerous threat is directed in an agonizing condition by these means for a prolonged period, shall be liable to imprisonment for up to three years."

Mostly lenient in court
A look at similar previous cases shows that leniency was usually shown in court. In 2017, a pupil (15) who was accused of threatening to run amok at NMS Ohsldorf was ultimately acquitted in court. In Wels, a 17-year-old posted a shooting game online with the background of BRG Wallerstraße the day before the math exam. The sentence: three months conditional imprisonment, psychological treatment - and his laptop was confiscated by the court.