MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A senior official at the Jamaica Fire Brigade says a trend has been developing over the past three years of schools receiving bomb threats during the May-June period, raising suspicion that the intention is to disrupt the sitting of exams.

“This is the third-consecutive year, as a matter of fact, that we have been experiencing these kinds of threats. Last year we had threats at Belair High, Holmwood High, Villa Road Primary, all of them for the past three consecutive years have been coming just about the time when CXC is in progress,” the official told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday.

The emergency responder shared the view hours after it was reported that a bomb threat had resulted in St Andrew Prep School administrators advising parents to collect their children.

During the May-June period the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), are held.

The senior firefighter said the bomb hoaxes appear to be targeted at disrupting schools by either sending e-mail to the institutions or nearby business places.

“Remember last year the schools were seriously impacted. Some exams were not allowed to be sat as a result of what was happening at the time and the students were disenfranchised,” the firefighter said.

He explained that bomb threats, usually issued via e-mail or phone calls, are most times difficult to trace and, as such, the masterminds are never caught.

“It is from some server that is always untraceable. All the institutions have received the threats through e-mail,” the firefighter said.

In May last year bomb scares affected operations at Kingston College and Campion College.

On Monday this week, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) Villa Road office in Mandeville was closed due to a bomb hoax.

“JPS got it in an e-mail and the police got it through their 119 control from an anonymous caller,” the firefighter said.

Another source told the Observer on Monday that the threat was issued shortly after the JPS office had opened with the message claiming that a bomb was set to detonate within 30 minutes.

“The bomb squad was called in and they brought the canine unit and a complete sweep was made of the building and no visible device that could be considered a threat was found in the facility,” the firefighter said.

The flow of vehicular traffic was also disrupted and affected commerce in Mandeville.