The spate of fake threats has hit a country on high alert since the Hamas attack on Israel, Israel’s ensuing assault on Gaza and the fatal stabbing of a teacher in the northern French city of Arras last week.
The teenager was arrested in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, a town northwest of Paris, over a bomb threat emailed to his school.
Around 1,200 people, including around a thousand pupils, were subsequently evacuated from the Jean Perrin High School.
No explosives were found following an examination of the site, and the teenager’s exact motive remained unclear.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the French authorities had made 18 arrests over false bomb threats.
Most of France’s major airports outside Paris were targeted, leading to evacuations, hours-long delays and dozens of cancelled flights.
